Regrets
by Lacie Calvados
Summary: I'm Sherra Aldaine. My story started just like yours: ordinary. But everything changed after my 17th birthday. Since then, I have experienced more loss and pain than I could've imagined. I wanted to stop. I kept trying to save everyone, but all I ended up was losing & failing. This is my journey as one of the first and last of our kind to have been created by PROECT, aka the School
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Sherra. Wake up!" my mom yelled.

With those three words, I woke up. I woke up from my dream.

I can't quit remember what my dream was, but it was a nightmare. All I remember is that I was running. Running away from something.

Well, it doesn't matter anyway. It was just a dream. Or at least I thought it was. I hoped it was.

...

Walking down a hallway of lockers and crowd of students made me realize the fact that I was back at school again, and another school year has begun. Ugh, I can't even describe how much I wanted to go home.

It's been a month since I turned 17, and I'm current in end of my 3rd year in high school.  
What I do when I get to school is what I do every morning when I get there; walk to my locker, and when I finally do reach my locker, I do the most stupid thing on Earth; stand there. Standing in front of my locker, pretending like I'm organizing my stuff while hoping for one of my friends to show up. Which does kind of make me sound like a loser.  
Ah well, I don't even care. All I wanted to do right now was to go home and sleep.

If you're wondering why I'm so attached to my home and sleeping is because lately, my body's been in the worst condition. Ever since my birthday, I've frequently had a headache, sudden exhaustion, and every part of my body ached, but I know that it'll be gone soon because I've never really been seriously sick in my life. So there is nothing to worry about. Well, that's what I keep telling myself at least every time.

As I was saying, this is middle of my 3rd year of high school at Arizona Secondary School, and so far, nothing has been going as I planned.  
Actually, never mind, things are going just as I planned. Here comes Claire and Emelia.  
"Hey," said Claire with a smile.  
"Hey," I said back.

"It's been a while since I last saw you" said Emelia, then gave me a warm hug.

"Yeah I know" I replied while hugging her back.  
"Yeah, it has been a while," said Claire, and gave me a pat on the back.  
"Oww" I yelled. Then Claire and Lily gave me an odd expression.

I just stared back at them. I didn't know how to react, because I knew that Claire just lightly patted my back and I yelled in response.

Thankfully, no one except Claire and Emelia heard me. The hallway was too loud with too many students chatting throughout it.

"Geez, I didn't even hit you that hard. What were you hospitalized over the summer?" Claire asked while giving me an odd expression.  
"No.. Sorry, I've been a bit tired lately," I said, without knowing the reason behind my own reaction.  
Then we all walked to our morning classes and decided to meet at lunch.

The school bell for announcing the beginning of first class began ringing. For me it was English, which was taught by a senior teacher with monotone voice named Mrs. Banes. I quickly got into the class and took a seat. I've actually had Mrs. Banes in my previous year classes in Arizona S.S. She wasn't the happiest teacher, but not the angriest one either. She just made most of her students fall asleep in her class.

As Mrs. Banes began taking the attendance as students slowly rolled into the class and took their seats one by one, I was thinking about what had happened this morning. Claire was telling the truth when she said she didn't pat me hard. It was just me who felt it like a hammer. The truth is, when I said my body was aching everywhere, I might have over generalized where I actually felt the pain; which was just my back. I guess I was a bit over exaggerating things before. The pain began not too long ago. To be more specific, it started hurting near the shoulder blades of my back, and it wasn't like I got a bruise or got hurt by anything. The pain just began without a reason. So I decided to pay more close attention to it, tried not to make it worse, but I clearly wasn't paying any attention to it this morning.

When I finally started paying attention to what Mrs. Banes was saying, half the class was asleep and the class soon ended.

As soon as the class ended, I headed towards the cafeteria. Then I got myself into a line up to buy lunch. I was looking around to find Claire and Emelia, who I decided to meet at lunch, but I somehow ended up bumping into the last person I wanted to bump into, Jae. Without making any eye contact, I apologized immediately and walked away.

Jae. Jae Degray, to be exact, was my best friend and my first crush. It happened before we entered high school. It was when we were in eighth grade, I believe. I don't really know how it happened, but I kind of just started liking him. I knew Jae for a long time, and to be honest, Jae wasn't really my type; appearance wise at least. It wasn't that he wasn't really attractive, he was. His green eyes were always so intimidating, they always drew me in with its brightness and I couldn't keep my eyes off them. But there was always something dark about him that attracted me in too. He was a bit full of himself in a way that he thought he was always so funny. He never seemed to take anything seriously. He still isn't my ideal type, but he made me laugh and comfortable, and that seemed to be all that I needed for a guy back then. We were neighbors for as long as I could remember and hung out all the time with our friends, but I didn't really get to know him until we were in eighth grade. We always hung out in groups of 6, including ourselves. The group included our closest friends since we were probably born, but I'll get to them later. As I was saying, I didn't really get to know him better until grade eight. Back then, we were assigned to sit beside each other for months which forced us get to know each other better, and got along quit well in some ways. Actually, no, we didn't. All we used to do was argue. If I think about it now, it was a childish way of getting to know each other, but we didn't always argue, we had some nice moments too.

Back then, I never got to tell him how I felt for him. I never had the courage to ask him how he felt either. I guess neither of us were ready or had the guts to just say it. Time passed by and we all graduated from elementary school, and moved on. Well, at least that's what I wanted; to move on. However, I realized that feelings don't work that way. Especially when the person you liked or like (I don't even know) is your neighbor, and yours and his parents are BFFs, and so you just can't seem to avoid meeting every often.

 **W** hen I entered high school, Arizona Secondary School, my feelings for him started to fade away. Little at a time. Arizona Secondary School wasn't my home zone school. Meaning, the high school was not the closest high school from my house, but I decided to apply for it anyway, because I wanted to get away from my old life, and start knew. Well, maybe I just wanted to get away from Jae. Because getting away from my old life also meant getting away from Jae. I just wasn't honest enough to admit it to my mom when I told her I wanted to apply for a school outside the home zone.

Only a few students from my elementary school applied and got accepted to Arizona S.S, only 6 to be exact including myself. Yes, those 6 happened to be my friends that I basically grew up with. I have been told by them that they would apply, but I wasn't told anything about Jae's application. However, I think a part of me knew that he would apply, and I applied anyway. On the day I got my acceptance letter, I received text messages from 4 of my friends who applied to the school also. The five others who got accepted included Elijah Kanes, Haley Darnell, Maya Delevingne, Luke Ashenden, and _Jae_. Most of them I was happy with since they were my best friends, except one, Jae. But I kind of knew this would happen so I couldn't complain and had to accept the fact. A part of me knew it was better to get away from him and start new, but a part of me had hopes that maybe we could avoid each other and start over at a new school. Maybe I wanted too much. Maybe I was being selfish for wanting all my old friends, while also wanting to move on and away from Jae. But no one can blame me for wanting everything. But I also can't blame others for not moving the way I wanted them to; including Jae.

When I first came to Arizona S.S. as a 1st year high school student, I had no friends. I only knew the five other people; Haley, Maya, Elijah, Luke, and Jae. Thankfully, we had each other, and even though I was trying to get over Jae, I still hung out with them with confidence that Jae and I would be able to just stay friends. Well, also because I couldn't give up 4 friends over a guy.

I soon realized that I made a good choice of not telling Jae how I felt, because it would have been a lot more awkward if I did. We _were_ happy back then, we _were_ all so happy. However, all the good times that we had, also had a side effect on me as well. Hanging out with everyone made me realize my feelings were coming back. Which wasn't a good sign for me.

As I said, Maya, Haley, Elijah, Luke, Jae and I _were_ all best friends. But it didn't last forever. Because nothing really _lasts_ _forever_.

It all started falling apart in the month of October. We all had just entered our 3nd year of high school, and still didn't have that many real close friends, because we were too tight with each other. Jae, Elijah, and Luke seemed to be getting along with everyone, _especially_ girls. I wasn't jealous or anything though, because I knew they were just being themselves. I guess guys just get along with everyone easier and quicker. Us girls, on the other hand, needed more time. Girls normally did tend to take a longer time when it came to making friends; not to be stereotypical or offend any girls out there. We were good at getting along with a lot of people, but not as good as Elijah, Luke, or Jae.

Anyway, as I said, it began in the month of October of our second year of high school. Haley started dating Elijah, Maya started dating Luke, and I began to feel a bit awkward hanging out with them, because I felt like an annoying bothersome third wheel. But also, their relationships made me realize that I still haven't forgotten Jae. I knew I had a bit of feeling left for him and knew this seemed like a perfect timing, but my gut was telling me differently.

I didn't know what was holding me back, but I knew it wasn't my time.

I never got to tell Jae about my feelings, and I regretted.

And I knew, sooner or later, the only feeling that I will have left of Jae is regret, and that was not how I wanted to remember or think of Jae. So I decided to let myself go. Let my feelings for him go completely and give up.

I told both Elijah and Haley that I let my feelings for Jae go. They were both surprised, but not too surprised and understanding. They probably thought we were going to be a thing too, but surprised to find out that we aren't.

Ever since that day, I never talked to Jae again, and eventually, Haley and Elijah broke up, and so did Maya and Luke. Ever since this whole thing happened, we all fell apart. We no longer got together to hang out or anything, and I knew we could never go back to the old days, and we would eventually move on.

...

 **T** ime passed as we all eventually moved on.

I now talked to everyone except Jae, but I knew eventually we would and have to talk to each other.

Now, I hang out with my two other best friends, Claire and Emelia. We laugh, hang, and talk. It's been really fun hanging out with them and they were the ones who made me forget. I still missed the old times, but I believed that everything happens and happened for a reason and we could be back together someday.

...

 **I** suddenly hear someone yelling my name out. It was Claire and Emelia walking down the hall way with their lunch bags and waving their hands at me, and I give them a big smile.

Then suddenly, I felt dizzy. Like a spark of electricity flowing through my brain. I felt the smile on my face disappear. I felt myself falling down. I heard Claire and Emelia yelling my name again, but this time it was full of fear. They sounded terrified. Then they started yelling for help. Then my eyes closed and I fainted.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **I** opened my eyes...

I found myself in darkness. 'Is this a dream?' I wondered.

I sat up and looked around, I saw nothing but the darkness that felt familiar.

I continued to wonder in the darkness as I tried to figure out what this familiar feeling was...

When I could finally remember what it was, my expression darkened.

I've been here before.

I've been here. I was in the nightmare that I often had. I could never remember them when I woke up, but I could never forget this feeling; this feeling that gave me chills all over my body.

I lightly pinched myself, trying to wake myself up, but it didn't work.

That was when a sudden scenery appeared.

It was still dark, but not as dark as it was when I first opened my eyes.

Then suddenly, I felt wind breezing towards me, and I could see someone running through the darkness, right past me.

I soon figured out where I was.

I was on top of a some sort of building under a dark cold sky.

The people who ran past me didn't seem to have noticed me at all. They seemed to be occupied and in a hurry, so I didn't blame them.

Out of curiosity and having nowhere else to go, I decided to follow them.

When they reached the edge on the top of the building, they stopped, and so did I.

I tried to take a closer look at their faces, but found myself in a difficult position because they were all facing against me, looking down from the edge of the building.

I took another step closer, I still couldn't see their faces.

Then without warning, they turned around, facing right at me. I took a small step backwards out of surprise.

Soon I realized that they couldn't see me. I was invisible to them.

They were examining the floor as if they were looking for something or someone.

I looked around as well to see if there was anyone or anything else around them.

Then my eyes widened in surprise. I could see big, tall figures across the building, but I couldn't exactly tell what those figures were, nor that I could guess.

I was surprised to have noticed them just now. They were impossible to not notice.

I turned back to face the people who were standing at the edge of the building, and saw one in the very front staring at the big dark figures across from them. The one standing at the front was a she, and she somehow looked very familiar.

 **T** hen the girl at the very front yelled

"Go! Go ahead! I'll be right behind you guys."

"No. We're all leaving together." The boy beside her replied.

"No. I have to talk to him. I know he's here. He's hiding behind them, like he always has. I need to talk to him. He has the answers that we've been looking for. I'll catch up with you guys. Just go!" she insisted, while looking around at the crowd of big, dark figures, trying to find someone.

"We can figure out the truth later. We can't win against all of them." Another girl replied. For some reason, she sounded familiar as well.

"She's right. We will figure out the truth, but not tonight. Let's go." Another boy replied. And again, he sounded familiar to me as well.

"No. It has to be tonight. We waited long enough!" The girl shouted.

Everyone at the edge of the building including the boy beside her sighed, then they all nodded at each other, except for the girl who just looked straight across.

Then without warning, one of them jumped off the building, and the others followed.

The boy beside the girl grabbed her hand, and pulled her with him off the edge of the building. "No!" She yelled, but she couldn't let go.

I screamed out of shock as I ran towards the edge of the building where the group of people jumped off from.

They just jumped off of a building, anyone in my situation would have reacted the same way.

But no one seemed to be able to hear my scream.

That was when I could start hearing loud footsteps running towards me from across the building.

The big, dark figures were running after the people who just jumped off the building. They were running towards my direction.

Once again, I screamed in fear as the dark figures came closer, then closed my eyes.

But I felt nothing.

They just ran through me. I was like an invisible computer projection to them.

When the big, dark figures got to the edge of the building, they stopped, then looked down.

At that moment, something made the dark figures step backwards.

Like a giant force of air or something forcing them back away.

Then I could see the group who jumped of the building, flying. Flying in the air.

And they all had wings. They all looked down at the big dark figures and then flew away, without looking back.

But the girl who didn't want to leave turned back, she still looked hesitant, and for once I saw her face.

It was still dark, but the moonlight allowed me to see a glimpse of her face.

Her expression was filled with anger and frustration, but she had a face that I could not forget.

My eyes widened.

It was me.

I was the girl flying.

I couldn't believe my own eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Her expression was filled with anger and frustration, but she had a face that I could not forget.

My eyes widened.

It was me.

I was the girl flying.

I couldn't believe my own eyes.

 **Chapter 3**

 **N** ow I really wanted to wake up. This was worse than a nightmare. This was impossible.

Now, I was relieved that I could never remember any of my nightmares when I woke up.

I always believed in the impossible, but I didn't think it would _actually_ be true.

No! It's not possible, because this is just my dream. Just a nightmare. All I needed to do was to figure out a way to wake up, but I didn't know how.

That was when I came up with an idea.

What would happen if I jumped off the building. Of course, I didn't think I would be able to fly like the group that just did, but it could be a way out of this nightmare.

Slowly, I walked towards the edge of the building, and looked down. This building was taller than I expected. I couldn't even see the ground; probably because it was too dark and too far away.

I took another step closer to the edge, then took a deep breath. 'This is just a dream. It can't hurt me.' I thought to myself, giving myself more confidence.

Without hesitating, I closed my eyes, prepared to jump, but that was when I heard a noise.

I immediately opened my eyes and turned myself around.

Standing across me were the big dark figures who were standing at the edge of the building, chasing the group of people who flew away, a minute ago. I wondered when they moved to where they were standing now. They were fast, but I wasn't surprised. The group of people who flew away with their wings had a big impact on me, I guess.

Staring at the crowd of big, dark figures for a minute or two gave me time to figure something out.

What I discovered was a human. I could see a person, a normal size human, standing in the middle of the crowd of the dark figures.

And I automatically knew, that _this guy_ was the _"he"_ the _other_ flying _ **me**_ was talking about. The one who apparently could answer _her_ questions.

I stared at him, and soon, he was staring back at me as well.

At that moment, I knew he could see me. No one else could, the dark figures couldn't, but he could. And somehow, I knew I had to talk to him and he had to talk to me as well.

So I took a few small steps toward him, and he did the same, but not the dark figures.

I couldn't see his face. The night was now darker, which made it more difficult for me to see him.

But from the shape of his clothing, I knew he was wearing a lab, which meant he was either a scientist or a doctor or both.

 **F** or another minute, we just stared at each other. Then he first began to speak;

"Hello sweat heart" he called with a smile.

"Um... Do I know you?" I asked carefully with a curious expression. I mean, he did call me "sweat heart," and I just met him...

"Oh. Of course, not yet. But I do know you, Sherra." he replied.

"Okay... Then... Can I ask you some questions?" I asked without hesitation.

"Sure. Of course. I can't guarantee you that I will answer every one of them, but give it a try." He said, relaxingly. I couldn't tell if he was trying to be nice to me or just playing games with me...

"So, where am I? Is this my dream? Why is this happening to me?" I asked desperately and curiously.

"Relax, sweetie. You're safe," he smiled.

Now I was kind of freaked out and annoyed. This guy sounded like a creep, but I decided to just walk away, just like what my gut originally told me to do: jump off the cliff and wake up from this insanely weird dream!

But then he yelled "Wait!" Sounding desperate, desperately needing to talk to me. So I turned back.

Then he began to speak again; "I'll get to my point."

"You are here because I wanted you to be, but also because you wanted to be. It's hard to explain, but you will get to understand it, eventually. There is one fact that I can tell you right now. All those impossible things that _you_ believed in, are true. You are one not who you think you are. The reason why you are having this dream is because you are the first member of _the_ _flock_ to experience the ' _awakening'_. Because you are the leader. I personally prefer the term _'maturing_ ,' but what your it's called is unimportant. You are our masterpiece, Sherra. You were born to make a change, and you'll do it again. The biggest change in our history," he said with an indescribable happiness.

I was official super confused.

Then he took a deep breath, and continued;

"I see that you're confused. As I said, you will understand everything in time." He said

I gave him a dumb expression.

Then he began again;

"You will get to realize it sooner or later. You see, Sherra. You're special, like any protagonists in every story, but even more amazing and was made for something even bigger."

At first I was confused, but now I was freaked out by this guy. He literally sounded like a lunatic. But since I believed that this was just a dream of mine, I tried to stay calm.

And now it was my turn to ask more questions.

"So why me? What is your goal? When can I wake up? Am I the only one who's having this dream or whatever this is? And why am I compared to a character from books?" I asked all at once, with a bit of anger.

"Oh sweetie. It wouldn't be fun if I gave you all the answers. You have to figure them out yourself. Well, perhaps with your friends?" He said with an evil grin on his face.

"Fine. Let's say I believe you and believe that this dream is really! Then who are these friends of mine?" I asked impatiently.

"You have to figure that out yourself as well." he said. Then he smiled at me again.

"You know what?! Why are you even here if you won't even help. Actually, Forget it! This is not even possible. I want to go back! So send me back home." I was now shouting and yelling at his face.

He smiled again, then said

"Sweetie, you and I both know this is not just a stupid dream of yours. You know this is real. The physical pain you've been having ever since you turned 17 has a reason. You'll see." he sounded serious.

This was when I really started believing him. 'How did he even know about my pain?' I asked myself.

"How did you know I was having back pain? Forget it! Can you at least tell me who these ' _friends'_ of mine are?" I asked with a frustrated tone, but with an annoyed expression.

But for real, inside my heart, I was freaking out. I knew this was impossible, but I also knew that this was real, not just another typical dream of mine.

The scientist with the white lab coat sighed, and began to speak again;

"If you would really like, I can send a few of _my_ _friends_ to help you find your _friends_. I believe that they will help you understand your abilities better, and help you improve those abilities. Does that sound good?" he asked.

Then without a second thought, I automatically said "Fine. That's at least better than nothing." with a serious expression.

"Oh, You won't thank me later." He said with a big grin.

...

His grin made me go suspicious, but I didn't care back then.

Well at least not till I knew what he actually sent me to help find my friends, and help me understand. I hated him after I discovered what he sent me. I hated myself for believing him at the time.

I regretted my choice afterwards, as always.

...

Then I hesitated for a moment and asked

"Wait! Who are these people you're sending me to help? At least I should know how to recognize them." I asked

"Oh. You don't have to worry about that. You'll know them as soon as you see them." He replied.

Then our conversation was slowly beginning to end. I took a deep breath, trying to understand and accept everything. But it was hard to believe. Hard to get it in my head.

Then once again, he started speaking again.

"Well. Do you understand what I'm saying so far?" He asked

I did not reply, but nodded.

"Well. It's good that you do, because it's now time for me to go and for you to wake up." he said.

"Wait. I have more questions." I panicked.

"You should hurry then." he replied calmly, slowly walking away.

"Are you on my side? Because I can't tell if you are or not. I mean, you are giving me all the instructions and help, but this doesn't seem like something nice and easy. And lastly, what I am? And where can I find rest of the answers?" I shouted, with a worried look on my face.

"I guess I will tell you one thing. You see Sherra. You are ..."

Then there was a big loud sound from a thunderstorm. It was sudden and it made my ears buzz.

I couldn't hear what he said about what I am.

Then he smiled at me as he knew I couldn't hear him, and disappeared into the darkness with the big dark figures. He was gone and I was alone.

I panicked. I was freaking out and confused. I wanted to believe this was just a dream, but I knew this wasn't just a dream.

This was different.

Then I began to hear someone calling my name. This person sounded terrified.

I tried to open my eyes, but it was too bright.

When I could finally open my eyes, I could see my mom and my sister above me with worried expressions on their faces.

The room I was currently in was too bright and white.

And it had a terrible scent, but I recognized this scent right away.

I realized I was in a hospital.

A normal life hospital.

Not in my dream.

I was back to mine own world.

I was awake.


	4. Chapter 4

When I finally opened my eyes, I could see a solid wall above me.

I tried to focus to figure out where I was... I tried to gather my strength to get myself up... But all I could feel was a painful headache.

The room that I was in was dark and quiet.

And it had a terrible scent, but I recognized the scent right away.

It was a smell that I could never forget. I was in a hospital.

Not in my dream.

I was back to the real world.

I was awake.

 **Chapter 4**

When I woke up, the first thing that came to mind was time. Conveniently, the watch that I always had on my wrist had remained. I was sure that someone would have removed it on my way through the school, ambulance, emergency room, and to this hospital room, but no one had. It was almost 10pm, which explained why the room was so dark.

I still felt a little dizzy, and the scent of the hospital did not make it better.

It was intoxicating, but also _familiar_.

When my head cleared itself, which it did eventually, despite the intoxicating hospital smell, I felt something on my back. That's when I ran for the bathroom.

I quickly got out of my hospital bed, and ran for the bathroom located inside the hospital room that I was in, and locked myself in.

I felt as if I was about to puke. Then the dizziness inside my head slowly came back to me. My body has never felt this way before.

There was something wrong. Something definitely felt wrong.

Then suddenly, without a warning, the pain on my back that I had earlier began once again.

This time, the pain was much more painful than the one I had before I fainted. It felt like thousand knives were stabbing my back, not that I knew what that felt like. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. That was when I set my eyes on a towel located across the room, hanging on a chair.

Then I ran as fast as I could toward the char, I grabbed the big towel and held it on my mouth to prevent my screams from being heart. I started screaming with my eyes closed. Of course, no one could hear me because there was a big towel shoved on my mouth to block my screams.

I heard my mom and sister shouting my name and banging the bathroom door at the same time. But I couldn't concentrate on them. I was too dizzy from sweating and screaming without a sound.

Then when I finally opened my eyes again, I saw my reflection in a mirror in the room and I saw something that made me want to close my eyes again.

My eyes widened. I tried to breath.

This was impossible. This couldn't be happening. I panicked.

The scientist from my dream was right. The dream was real. Oh my god.

I saw my own reflection in a huge mirror located in the bathroom.

But it wasn't just my reflection in the mirror.

I had something gigantic flying out of my back.

Something white and dark.

Something I wish I didn't see.

Something that changed my life forever...

I saw myself in the mirror and wings on my back.

I had wings.

I couldn't believe my own eyes.

That was the day, I became the first impossible experiment that ever existed on earth. Well, at least that's what I thought back then.

I regretted it.

I couldn't even scream. I was too shocked.

I turned around to see if my wings were real or not. I hoped they weren't, and that I was just hallucinating, but they were real. I could see them and I could feel them on my back.

I tried to stay calm and steady, but it was hard. Hard to think. Hard to breathe.

I didn't know much of what was going on, but I knew one thing. I knew that I had to keep this to myself. Meaning, I couldn't tell anyone or anything about it.

First of all, I had to fold my wings. I had to get out of this bathroom naturally as if there was and is nothing wrong. I had to make my family stop calling and worrying about me.

And as soon as they calm down, I could freak out and start worrying myself, and think again about what happened in my dream, but till then, I had to calm everyone else down first.

So I took a deep breath. I started folding my wings in, which did not fold itself and I had no idea how to do so. I tried to just shove them in my back by slamming myself onto one of the bathroom walls; which also did not work. I was screaming in my head. My anger was screaming in my brain.

Then all of a sudden, my wings were gone. I knew that slamming myself onto one of the walls was not the solution to this, but only my desire for it to be unseen by others. Maybe, calmly telling myself that I wanted my wings to be folded and unseen by others worked better than slamming myself against the wall. And somehow, it worked. My wings were invisible. It listened to me. Now I knew my number one rule with my wings; ask nicely, trust me, it'll listen.

Next, I walked out of the bathroom. My mom and sister looked so worried to the point where they looked pale. It was my mom who first started the conversation;

"Oh god. Are you okay, sweetie?" asked my mom.

"Yeah. I'm fine mom" I replied with a smile.

Then my sister, Lacie, started talking;

"Okay good. Mom was freaking out. When she got a call from the school saying you fainted. Well, she thought you were going to be like... well, you know like..." She couldn't finish her sentence.

"I thought you were going to be like your dad" My mom finished the sentence for her.

Oh. I probably forgot to mention that my dad passed away when I was like 2 years old, and when my sister was first born. Although I try, I don't remember much about him, but who can blame me, I was two for god's sake! I still feel sad every now and then though, but I try to stay strong and support mom. My mom still cries about it once in a while. She cries every year on the day my dad passed away. I always felt bad. I still do. But we all try to move on and forget that my dad ever passed away, because I know he'll always be with us. In our hearts.

There was a silent moment. Then I tried to break this awkwardness.

"I'm fine mom," I said.

She didn't look very convinced but she replied;

"That's good. I was really worried," she said with a worried expression on her face.

"Well, you should stop worrying because I'm fine now. I was just having a headache" I replied.

"I will stop worrying. But you have to stay in the hospital for another night. Just in case" she demanded.

I couldn't refuse, so I replied and said "Okay. Fine mom."

My mom was finally convinced when I told her that I was just fine for like the hundredth time. But my sister didn't look very convinced at all. She looked very suspicious, as if she knew my secret already. My sister's always like that. She has that expression as if she can see through people. But I try to ignore her suspicion. My sister always understood me and knew me the best. Whenever I lied, she knew I was lying, even though my mom didn't notice at all.

It was now, 12am.

I was still at the hospital.

My mom and sister were both sleeping in the extra bed located next to mine, in my hospital room.

But I couldn't sleep at all. My eyes were wide open.

When I was finally convinced that my mom and sister were both asleep, I walked to the bathroom in the room.

I turned the lights on, and locked the door. Just in case.

Then once again, I calmly told myself to unfold my wings.

Then there it was. My wings were once again flying out of my back.

I still couldn't believe that I had wings, but I tried to believe in this impossible fact.

I wasn't even sure if it could make me fly or if I had other super powers that has yet been discovered. All these unanswered questions made me tired. I sighed.

Then slowly, I folded my wings back into my back, once again it was gone, and I left the bathroom.

I walked out of the bathroom and sat on my bed, and thought of what happened in my dream.

The scientist who I did not know of told me that I would be the impossible.

'Well, he didn't lie about that for sure' is what I said to myself.

I could still remember the promise he made to me. The promise that he would send his people to find my _friends_ and discover what I truly was and could be. I just wasn't sure who he was going to send. I also wasn't sure what he meant by "You won't thank me later," when I thanked him before. I was kinda worried when he said that, but I didn't care.

All I knew was that I just had to hide my wings from everyone. Including my family.

I didn't want them to involve themselves with my truth, because I didn't know what would be brought to them if they discovered my truth (my wings). However, I was sure that discovering my truth wouldn't bring them happiness, and I just wanted to keep everyone safe.

My head started hurting. All these complications were getting my head. I needed some fresh air.

I decided to walk to the playground outside the hospital. I was sure no one would notice.

I got out of bed, got dressed, then left my room.

I rode the elevator to the first floor of the hospital, and walked through the lobby. I walked out of the hospital through the main entrance. Then I walked through the parking lot and entered the playground.

No one was around. Probably because it was literally 1am in the morning. It was quiet and I was alone.

I looked up to the sky and took a deep breath. It got my mind off everything. I felt like a normal person again.

Then I heard footsteps.

I turn around as fast as I could.

I could see a man. A big, tall man walking towards me.

At first, I was going to start heading back to the hospital, but something about this man made me stay.

He looked familiar.

Then I knew. He was one of the big, tall figures that I saw in my dream. But now, I could see his face. He looked normal, but something about him made me think that he wasn't normal.

Suddenly, he gave me a big growl. That was when I saw him change. Change into a big werewolf human whatever, I honestly had no idea what he was. At first, he was and looked normal, but he became half werewolves half humans looking creature, and I now knew what he was.

I had no idea how I knew of him or what he was called, but I knew. He was an Eraser.

They had power and strength of a beast and speed of a cheetah. They were inhuman. I had no idea how I had all this knowledge, but I knew.

This was impossible. I always believed that this could only happen in fictional books, but it was happening. It was happening to me. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. I couldn't do anything.

My eyes widened. I thought of running and escaping, but I just couldn't. Instead, I just stood there and stared at him.

When he was finally done turning into an Eraser, he walked forward. I just stood there, without stepping back. Then he started talking;

"I am experiment number 5247. I came here with a message that my master told me to send you," he said, sounding like a machine.

I just stood there and gave him a confused look. I was truly confused. I still couldn't believe this was happening. Then he spoke again;

"My master's message was 'As I promised you, I have sent one of my people to teach you about yourself and to discover what you truly are and can do' and I am that person. I am here to help you discover yourself and to help you discover what you truly can do." he said.

Then without hesitating, he started running towards me, and I realized he wasn't going to stop. He was going to run me over. So I jumped out of the way and fell on the hard ground of the playground. It hurt. This pain felt too real. This was definitely when I realized this was absolutely happening to me for real.

With the power left inside me, I tried to get up.

I got up as soon as I could and tried to find the man, to see where he was.

I couldn't see him anywhere.

I was panting hard. I was breathing hard. I tried to stay quiet and listen to where he was.

But before I could even try to listen, he ran over me.

He hit me hard and knocked me down hard enough to make me fly across the playground. I fell. It hurt me so much.

He turned around to see me. Then with that one look of his, I realized he was going to do it again. But this time, he was going to end me. He slowly opened his fist and stared at his palm, then fingers. Suddenly, I saw something growing out of his fingers. His fingers and finger nails were growing longer and bigger. Then they became claws. As soon as he was finished growing his claws. He ran towards me as fast as he could. I was still lying there.

I knew I had to get up and fight him. Fight back. I had to live. I had to go back to my room. To my mom and my sister. I couldn't die today. I had to go back. I wanted to go back.

With that desperate thought inside my mind. I got up.

If he was going to use his power, then so was I.

Inside my mind, I told myself to unfold my wings.

My wings stretched out. Then I demanded myself to fly. Fly high, so that the Eraser couldn't see me above. Then I was flying. I was flying in the air. And I dodged him.

Then I looked down to see where he was at now. He was standing in the middle of the playground. Looking around. Looking for me. I knew what to do next.

I decided to drop from the air, kick his head, and make him faint. So I folded my wings in, dropped, and then kicked. He fainted automatically. I was proud and surprised with my own power.

I saw him lying down on the ground.

I check his pulse. He was still breathing.

I decided to leave him there before he decides to come back to life. I knew he would wake up soon. When he did wake up, I knew he would either leave without a trace or comeback for me again, so I knew I had to be gone by then.

I looked down on him once more before leaving.

Then suddenly, I heard a footstep, and the sound of a big gasp of air.

I turned around immediately to see who/what it was.

My wings were still flying out of my back.

It was a person.

She walked closer. She had a familiar face. Very familiar. Then she stood right in front of me.

My eyes widened.

It was my sister. Lacie. Standing right in front of me. She had a shocked expression on her face, and I knew she was watching me the whole time.

And now she knew my secret.

Now she discovered my secret.


	5. Chapter 5

Then suddenly, I heard a footstep, and a big gasp.

I turned around without hesitation to see who it was.

My wings were still flying out of my back.

She took a tiny step closer. She had a familiar face. Very familiar. Then she stopped and stood right in front of me.

My eyes widened.

It was my sister. Lacie. Standing right in front of me. She had a shocked expression on her face.

She was here the whole time, and I realized she was watching me the whole time.

And now she knew my secret.

Now she discovered my secret.

 **Chapter 5**

I just stood there. Stunned. Surprised. From Lacie's expression, she was the same.

She has seen everything that happened between me and the Eraser. She knew I had and have wings. She discovered what I was trying to hide from her.

Lacie took another step closer to me, and I took a step back.

"Sherra? Is that you?" my sister asked carefully.

As soon as she asked the question, I immediately turned around. I was too scared and surprised to answer her. Then she spoke again;

"It is you isn't it? I knew there was something wrong with you as soon as you woke up at the hospital. I knew you were hiding something, but this is... What is that?" My sister asked. I could see that she was starting to freak out. I knew I had to calm her down.

"Lacie. I can explain. Just try to calm down and please don't freak out." I said. But I needed to calm myself first. I was freaking out as well.

"What can you explain? I mean, I saw everything with my own eyes, from the very beginning. I knew you were hiding something so I followed you, then that guy over there lying on the floor was talking about a promise, then the next I saw was you flying in the air with those big wings on your back and fighting that guy. What can you explain? I already know everything." She replied in rush. Then she took a big breath.

I said nothing. She was right, she did know pretty much everything that had happened. "But you still don't know everything. I'll try to explain everything to you. Just don't think of me as a freak, and don't tell mom. Okay? Please." I asked with a worried and sincere expression on my face. I was too worried and truly sincere. And I knew my sister was definitely confused and shocked.

I knew it was too late to tell her a lie. She already knew too much and saw too much. I had to tell her or she would try to discover everything by herself She would literally watch me every moment of my life from now on. So I decided to tell her from the very beginning. First, I folded my wings back into my back. Then walked towards the hospital parking lot, away from the Eraser, and found a bench to sit on. I sat down with my sister, and then I began my story; from the very beginning with every single detail.

By the time I finished my story, it was around 3am.

I was too tired from the fight and from telling my sister my whole story. I felt exhausted.

When I was finished telling my story to my sister, she looked shocked. And without asking, I could guess what she was thinking inside her head. She was probably thinking that this was impossible and could not happen, but at the same time, she knew it was happening for real because she saw everything with her own eyes. It was hard to believe, but she knew she had to accept the truth she witnessed.

We just sat there for a moment. I was doing nothing, but my sister was looking down at the ground and was thinking hard. Trying to fit all the impossible facts into her head. I could tell that she was trying to accept the fact that her only older sister, was now a flying hybrid with had to find more people who were like her, and she still didn't know what she was or have to do for the future, except for finding people who were like her.

I totally understood her. I mean if Lacie was the one with freaky flying wings, I would've reacted the same way, but the fact was that I was the one with freaky flying wings, not her. But I was sure she would understand.

She finally lifted her head up. She took a deep breath and started the conversation;

"This is soooo awesome!" She said, enthusiastically with a big smile on her face.

"I know it's confu... What?" I replied with a shock.

"Like I said. You're awesome." She replied, once again.

"I am? You don't think I'm a freak?" I asked with a serious tone.

"I mean you are awesome. You have wings that can make you fly. And no, I don't think you're a freak! You're my only sister. How could I even think that?!" She answered. And she sounded very confident with her answer.

So I said;

"I think I feel very relieved to hear that you still think of me the same way as you did before, your sister. From now, I will definitely first look for my _friends_ and I'll definitely plan to find that damn scientists and find some answers, and also ask him why he sent me his _experiments_ to _help_ me." I said confidently.

Then my sister smiled and spoke;

"And I will definitely support you any way I can. Like I always have!" She smiled again.

And I smiled back at her. Then spoke;

"But you absolutely cannot tell mom about this. I already got you involved and I'm not even sure if telling you was a good idea or not. I might have already gotten you in danger just by telling you about me. You might get attacked by one of those Erasers, because of me. I didn't want that, but before I knew it, you already discovered the truth. I don't want to put both _you_ and _mom_ in that kind of danger, so don't tell anyone. Okay?" I said with a serious tone. And I knew she understood me and took my words seriously.

"Okay. I promise." She replied with a calm voice.

Then we both headed back to the hospital and to our room. We exchanged a smile before entering our room. Our mom was still asleep, so we slowly moved to our beds and laid down then fell asleep.

I felt relieved that I told someone about my secret. It was hard to go through this alone, not until I found my flock. It felt like a small part of the weight on my shoulder was released from me. I was sure my sister would not tell anyone and keep this to herself. I was sure that she would understand me. I felt very relieved. I was glad that I told my sister. However, all of a sudden as I tried to fall asleep on my bed, my emotions rushed towards me. I had forgotten the fact that I killed a person or at least a former person. The brief relieved feeling that I experienced after telling my sister my secret was no longer there. I hands started shaking. I tried to calm down, but all I could remember was the Eraser's blood on my hands and the feeling of breaking his bones. I just quietly started crying. I never thought this would happen to me. And I eventually fell asleep as I cried quietly, yet terrified in my bed

...

I was the first one to wake up. It was a bit chilly. Probably because one of the windows in my room was wide open. I wondered who opened it.

I looked around the room to see if anything has changed perhaps. I looked around and felt something missing. I looked around again.

The window in my room was still wide open, as if someone came in and out.

My mom was still sleeping on the bed next to mine, but she was sleeping alone. The bed my mom and sister were sharing since last night was half empty.

My sister was missing.

Lacie had disappeared.

She was gone.


	6. Chapter 6

The window in my room was still wide open, as if someone came in and out.

My mom was still sleeping on the bed next to mine, but she was sleeping alone. The bed my mom and sister was sharing since last night was half empty.

My sister was missing.

Lacie had disappeared.

She was gone.

 **Chapter 6**

 **I** ran towards the bathroom in my hospital room. I rushed and pushed the door wide open.

She wasn't there. Then I ran around the hospital floor I was on. Checked in on every single room on the floor, but she wasn't in any of them. I practically searched the whole hospital to look for her. She wasn't here. She wasn't anywhere.

I ran back to my room with no hope. My mom was now awake. She spoke;

"You're awake! Oh god, Lacie and I were so worried. Where have you been? And where is Lacie? I thought you weren't feeling well again so I thought you were in the bathroom, but you weren't. Where is Lacie?" she asked with a worried expression on her face.

"Lacie's gone." I replied. Forgetting about everything else she said and asked me.

"What do you mean she's gone? Weren't you with her?" she asked

"I mean she's literally gone. She's not in the bathroom, not in any other rooms, she's not in the hospital." I replied as I could hear my voice tremble.

"She must be in the hospital somewhere. There's nowhere else she could have gone to. She doesn't even have a key to open our house, so she couldn't have possibly went there. Maybe, she went out to get some air?" my mom said with a worried and confused tone. Then she kept on going. Talking about other possibilities. She does this when she gets worried. But I wasn't paying much attention.

All I had in my mind was this bad feeling that something bad happened to Lacie. Every inch of my body and mind told me that this had something to do with last night. That's when the playground popped on my mind. The playground where I talked to the Eraser, and fought him the night before. The playground where Lacie discovered my secret. The playground where I told her about my secret; and maybe that my secret could put her in danger.

The danger had already come, and I knew who did this; I already knew who took her. Who kidnapped her. Without any thinking, I knew it was probably an Eraser. It took my sister from me. And I knew I had to get her back. I needed Lacie back.

When I finally focused my attention to my mom again, she was calling my name. Trying to get my attention;

"Sherra? Sweetie? Can you hear me?" She asked. I could tell that she was worried.

"Ah, sorry. I just... I was thinking about something else. Sorry. What were you saying?" I asked.

"I was saying that she couldn't have gone anywhere else other than the hospital. I'm sure she's in the building somewhere." She said.

"Mom! I looked around the whole hospital. Every single room. She's not here." I reassured her calmly.

"Then where is she?" she asked with no hope in her voice.

"I don't know..." I replied. But in my mind, I had clues of who could have taken her and where I could find her, but I couldn't tell my mom that. I couldn't tell her about my secret and get her into this danger also. I just couldn't.

Then my mom spoke;

"I have to report this to the police. I have to report that my daughter is missing and they absolutely have to find her." She demanded.

I wanted to stop her. I wanted to tell her that it was going to be useless. But telling her that would involve me telling her the truth. So instead I nodded and said;

"Yeah. Okay."

The police came to the hospital in about an hour after we asked for them. They asked me and my mom many questions, but I was sure that our answers would be useless and they couldn't possibly help us.

I knew only I could find her and bring her back. And I was going to bring her back without worrying about the consequence.

The police left about an hour or two after they came in. They looked hopeless as well, but they would try to find her. That was their job.

It was now 4pm.

My mom and I went to the cafeteria located on the first floor of the hospital. Then we ate our early dinner there. We said nothing to each other while we ate. My mom's eyes were still red from crying, and she looked very worried. But inside my mind, I was determined that I was going to bring Lacie back. I knew it wouldn't be easy to get her back, but I had to get her back no matter what. I was her sister after all.

After dinner, we went back to my room. We both set on our beds. My mom laid down on her bed then started crying. I couldn't bear to the sound of her crying voice, so I left the room for some fresh air and a walk.

When I came back, it was 8pm. My mom was now sleeping on her bed, and I could guess that she fell asleep while crying. I put a blanket over her to keep her warm. Then I laid on my bed and fell asleep.

When I woke up again it was 11:45pm, and I knew it was time for me to go. To go find my sister. I got up without making any noise, then got dressed, and then left for the playground. I walked through the hospital parking lot, then reached the playground.

No one was around. Not even a single security camera to watch my every move.

Then when the hospital bells rang to inform the city that it was 12am, I saw a big figure walking towards me. Towards the playground. Without guessing, I knew he was the Eraser. And I noticed that he was carrying something with him. Something of size of a human being. And without a second thought, I knew that he was carrying my sister.

When he finally reached the playground, he threw my sister on the ground, right in front of me. I ran to her. I could hardly recognize her. She had a weak pulse. She was covered with bruises and blood, but I knew it was my sister for sure.

Then she called my name;

"Sherra? Is that you? You came for me. You shouldn't have. He's too strong and fast. You can't beat him. You'll die. You have to escape." She said weakly, her hand trembling from the shock and fear.

"Are you kidding? Of course I came for you. Why wouldn't I. You're my sister. I'll always come for you wherever you are. I would never just leave you behind." I said with tears dangling from my eyes.

Then she gave me a small smile, and said;

"You sound really cheesy when you say that," she laughed.

Then I give her a small laugh as well.

"I guess I'm not very good with words. But I'm your sister. So I guess you have to live with this for the rest of your life." I smiled gently.

Then I lifted her from the ground and moved her to a bench located in the playground, near me.

I was surprised with myself. I was never this strong. I never could have lifted anyone who was taller than me or anyone near my size before, but now I could. And I knew this strength came from the _change_ or _maturing_ that the scientist in my dream talked about.

Then I told her; "Wait here just for few minutes. I'll be right back," I said with a faint smile.

She did not reply, but nodded.

Now I turned back to the Eraser, who had done _this_ to my sister.

"Why did you do this? Was this the _teaching_ process that the scientist in my dream was talking about? Hurting the people around me in order to make me stronger and expose my true strength? 'Cause if this was the teaching that he was talking about, then tell him that I don't want it, and that I would kill him when I find him." I shouted at the Eraser.

I hated the feeling of killing someone. I hated it, but I had and have to do this to protect the people I cared for.

The Eraser just stood there for a moment, then started speaking.

"My master said that you would regret your choice of making that promise with him. But he also said he won't break his promises. Not until he gets what he wants." He said, robotically.

"What is it that he wants from me?" I yelled.

"He said you will discover what he wants when you find him with your flock members," he replied.

"What if I refuse to find my 'flock' and refuse everything that he wants me to do?" I asked.

"Then _that_ will happen to _**everyone**_ around you." Pointing at my sister as he spoke.

Now I was definitely worried and scared.

"Is he going to send you and others like you again to _help_ me find my 'flock'?" I asked with my voice filled with anger.

"Yes." He replied robotically.

"What if I choose to find them on my own?" I asked

"My master said that you won't be able to reveal who they are without his assistance." He replied.

"Then let me ask you; Did this happen to my sister because I told her the truth? About my secret?" I asked with a terrified expression on my face.

"Yes" he replied to my question.

Now I was angry. Angry with myself. Then I started to spread my wings open. I gripped my fist tightly. I knew a bit more about my own strength now, and why he wanted me to reveal my true strength. I was the impossible. I had strengths and powers that no one else ever had or could. Then I asked him my last question;

"One Last question. Did you do this to my sister? Did you do this yourself?" I asked calmly.

But I already knew the answer to my question. He stared at me with an expression that I couldn't understand, but I could see one truth in his eyes. His answer was obvious: Yes.

But before he could answer me out loud, I ran towards him, flew up high, dropped down, and then kicked his head as hard as I could and punched him as hard as I could as I dropped.

He fell on the ground. He didn't move.

And I knew he was gone.

He was dead.

And **I** killed him.


	7. Chapter 7

"I have one last question. Did you do this to my sister? Did _you_ do this?" I asked calmly.

But I already knew the answer to my question. He stared at me with an expression that I couldn't understand, but I could see his answer through his eyes. His answer was obvious: Yes.

But before he could answer me out loud, I ran towards him, flew up high, dropped down, and then kicked his head as hard as I could and punched him as hard as I could as I dropped.

He fell on the ground. He didn't move.

And I knew he was gone.

He was dead.

And **I** killed him.

 **Chapter 7**

 **H** e was dead. **H** e wasn't moving. I panted hard. I breathed hard.

I was too angry to hear his answer. I was... _I lost control._

And before I realized, **I** had killed him. **I** ended his life.

I was scared. My hands were trembling, and I couldn't stop. I knew I had to do it, but the feeling was still horrifying.

Then I turned my face to search for my sister, Lacie. She was still laid on the bench, helpless, but her face was facing at me. But she was looking at the Eraser, not me. Her eyes were wide open. Wide open from the shock. I could see that she was almost as shocked as I was, and I knew she had just witnessed what I had done; How I killed an Eraser.

She then turned her eyes towards me. She was now facing me. Looking at me. She gave me a worried yet scared expression, and I did the same. I couldn't stop trembling. I was scared. And I wondered to myself 'what have I done... why is this happening to me."

My deep, scared thoughts became distracted when my sister began talking with barely any energy left in her voice;

"Sherra?" Lacie called gently.

Without giving her an answer, I walked to her, with my wings still spread wide, and sat beside her.

Then without a warning, she hugged me tight and held on. That was when I started crying. That was when I reached my limit. Crying like a child. I held onto her tight, and I didn't let go. I didn't want to. I felt so alone and scared. I couldn't bare this feeling alone. My sister could see this unsure, scared, fearful, and lonely feeling of mine. Then she began to cry as well. She wasn't crying out of pain. She was crying for me, and we just sat there crying. Trying to bare everything. Trying to put everything together. Trying to endure.

Then my sister suddenly fainted. I soon realized how pale she looked. She had to be treated immediately. It was still dark enough to fly and not get seen by others.

I immediately stood up. Wiped my tears from my eyes. Lifted my sister with my arms, flew up and towards the hospital. I was fast. I quickly reached the ground. There was no one who saw me fly. Then I folded my wings back in, and ran into the hospital with my sister in my arms, and called for help.

My sister was immediately sent to the emergency room.

I asked the nurses to call my mom down to the main floor. A few minutes later, I saw my mom running out of an elevator. She did not look good. She looked terrified. She ran towards me and shouted;

"What happened?" she asked without caring that we were at a public place.

That was when I decided to make up a story. A story that didn't involve me flying and killing an Eraser or anyone.

"We need to be somewhere quiet mom." I said. I dragged her back to my room and started talking. I began to tell her a fake story. I told her that Lacie was kidnapped by a strange guy;

"Try to stay calm and listen. Okay, Mom? This will sound impossible, but Lacie was actually kidnapped. She was kidnapped the morning we started looking for her. And I actually got a call last night from the kidnapper saying that he had her, and if I wanted her back, I would have to come to the playground across the hospital at midnight, alone. It was strange, I know. He didn't ask for money or anything, but I went anyway. Then last night, I saw him waiting for me at the playground. Lacie seemed almost dead when I got there. I quickly rushed to Lacie, then took out my phone and took a quick picture of the kidnapper. But I wasn't quick enough for him to not notice. As soon as he discovered I took a picture of him, he ran towards me and took my phone. Then he tried to get into my phone, but unfortunately, my phone needed a pass code in order to get into it. That was when he started to have this weird reaction. He started freaking out. I took a step away from him, with Lacie in my arms. And before I knew it, he took out a gun and shot himself. I was terrified, but I knew I had get Lacie to the hospital. I knew it was too late to save him, but I knew I could save Lacie. So I left the kidnapper at the playground and ran to the hospital. I just left him there. Dead." I told mom with a serious tone. This story was actually part true. I did leave him there dead.

My mom looked stunned and shocked. Then my mom replied;

"You're right. This is hard to believe. I have to report this to the police, and is the dead kidnapper still at the playground right now?" she asked.

"Yes, I think so." I replied.

"Then I have to report this to the police immediately to move his body away from the children's playground," my mom said, sounding very angry.

Soon the police arrived. They asked me and my mom many questions, but I lied about all of them. They still believed me. Well, at least I think they did. They demanded that they ask one or two questions to Lacie when she recovered. They said they would come back after 2 weeks for Lacie. So I knew I had to tell Lacie what to tell the police before they got to her.

I was at the hospital for about 2 or 3 weeks to help Lacie recover and to take care of her, since our mom had to get to work most of the time. I already missed about three weeks of school, and I kind of wanted to go back now.

The police came back after 2 weeks to ask Lacie some questions, but she lied to all of them as well. For me.

Soon, Lacie recovered.

Today was her last day at the hospital. We were packing our clothes and other stuff in our bags to return them back to our house.

And while we were packing, I started talking;

"Lacie, I'm really sorry about what happened to you. I know you were badly hurt, and almost died. I should have never told you the truth. I'm really sorry. Now, I really regret the fact that I ever told you the truth." I told her then sighed. I was truly sorry. I did not know how to tell her about my feelings. How sorry I was.

"Shey. First of all, you don't need to apologize like that. And second of all, it was me who discovered the truth that you were trying to hide from me. So if there is anyone to blame, then you should blame me," she replied with a small smile.

Then I slowly smiled back at her.

"You know what? I'm really trying to apologize here and you keep ruining it! You know what? Forget it! I won't apologize!" I said jokingly.

Then we both started laughing. And I started talking again;

"Everything seems so different now. Doesn't it? Everything's going to be different from now." I said with a worried expression and tone.

"Everything's still the same as ever, the world is the same and I'm the same. It's just you who's different." she said.

"I guess you're right. I just see everything differently now. I mean, anyone in this room might be an Eraser." I replied with a suspicious voice. Then suspiciously looked around the room.

Then we started laughing again, and this time, we didn't stop.

That afternoon, we came back to our home. It felt like a such long time since I've been here. Then I immediately went to bed. I was too tired from everything.

And when I finally woke up, it was the morning of the next day.

I knew I had to go to school today. I needed to. I needed to go find my flock. I wasn't sure if all 5 members of my flock, was in my school, but I knew at least one of them would be. At least one of them had to be according to the creepy doctor from my dream.

Without any clue, I just knew at least one them was in there.

Waiting for me to find them.

Waiting for me to discover them.

They were waiting for me.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

When I arrived and entered the main entrance of the school, everyone in my grade stared at me as if I was a new student. I had to admit, if this happened to someone I knew, I would have reacted the same way as everyone else did, but since it was me I couldn't do a thing, so I tried to walk through it. I walked towards my locker. By the time I reached my locker, Claire and Emelia were already ready to throw themselves at me;

"Hey. Are you okay?" Emelia first asked, with a worried expression.

"Umm.. Yeah. I'm fine." I replied, and gave her a small smile.

"Com'n Emelia! She fainted and lost consciousness, then was absent for like a whole month. You know better than anyone that she's not okay." snapped Claire.

What Claire said was right. I had fainted at school and haven't come back to the school for a month. They probably thought something happened to me. but I can't tell them what really happened, so I just told them about the story where Lacie was kidnapped after I recovered from my head injury., and how that was the reason why I was absent for about a month.

They looked at me as if I was lying to them. I knew that the kidnapping story was impossible for them to believe since it's kind of a ridiculous story. Then I imagined telling them my real story, the story about my dream and my wings, and thought how they would think I was a freak and how impossible that would have been for them to believe. It was a good thing that I never told them anything.

I knew that they were trying to believe me and accept my story. I knew lying to them was what was best for them. Then we just dropped the topic and walked to our first classroom.

Before I knew it, I was in English with Mrs. Banes again.

Everyone was sitting where they set a month ago. Then Mrs. Banes started talking; "Everyone excited for the semi-formal dance party that's coming soon?" She asked enthusiastically.

Then everyone in the classroom yelled; "YESS!"

"I just had to remind you to buy your tickets if you have yet bought one, because apparently I have to as a teacher." Mrs. Banes continued.

I finally realized the semi-formal was coming, in 5 days, and this year's semi-theme was "The Night". What the theme meant was very simple. All students attending were strongly encouraged to bring a partner to the dance and enjoy the party. We all hated finding a partner for ourselves, so we didn't have to bring partners if we didn't want to. I personally hated dance parties, but all of my friends decided to go, so I decided to go as well. However, I later regretted going to the party. I wished that I never went.

For the next 4 day, I completely forgot about the fact that I had wings, and basically went dress hunting with my friends 24/7 for our semi-formal dresses. It was fun hanging out with my friends again. It was fun being normal again.

And before I realized, the day of semi-formal came.

It was currently 7:30pm. I still didn't have a partner, but a lot of people did. I felt left out, probably because I was gone for a whole month and didn't get a chance to even think about this, so I didn't get much of a choice.

Emelia and Claire soon came to pick me up, and they brought their partners as well. Then we left my house for the semi-formal.

When we arrived at the school, the dance had already begun. It was loud and fun. I danced with my friends for a long time, until the slow dance song began to play. While they danced with their partners, I decided to just go get some air at the bench outside the school.

I was happily on my way to the bench until I saw Jae. I was just walking around a corner to reach the door that would lead me outside, and I could see he was there.

He was with someone, and I automatically assumed that it was his partner that he brought. I immediately took a step back and jumped back around the corner where I was standing before I witnessed him. I was now eavesdropping on them. Not on purpose of course, but it was unavoidable. I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it.

They were talking about something.

When I finally decided to just walk through the hallway, trying not to interfere or interrupt them, I saw Jae's partner starting to hug him really tight, and I let my imagination assume the rest of what they would do.

It hurt. I said I moved on already, but it did hurt a lot.

This pain made me realize that there was a piece of me that still couldn't forget Jae, and I remembered when I told him that I was now moving on, it was a lie. I still wanted him. I still needed him.

But I could see that he already moved on. Before I knew it, he moved on. I felt pathetic, probably because I was pathetic.

I knew that I first had to get away from this hallway, and from this reality. I needed to escape.

Then before I knew it, I was running down the hallway. As I was running, I saw a glimpse of Jae's face and he saw mine as well. Then he called my name and said something, but I never heard what he said, because by then, I had already exited the hallway and the school, and was running towards the bench in front of the school. Then I sat down. 'This was a bad idea' I thought to myself. It hurt, and now I just felt tired. But I wasn't hurt and tired from running. I was hurt and tired from running away from Jae.

I was now all alone outside the school. Through the school windows, I could see students walking through halls and classrooms, but they couldn't see me because of the darkness of the night. It was really dark, yet somewhat peaceful.

I sat on the bench for about 10 minutes, then I saw a medium size truck arrive in front of the school.

A man came out of the truck, and started walking towards me.

I immediately felt chills all over my body that made me stand up. Then waited for my moment to start walking away from him, and back into the school.

But I didn't walk away. I could have and I had the chance, but I didn't. The reason was because of his presence. Without a single clue of who he was, I knew he was an Eraser. And I knew he came to _teach_ me a lesson, once again.

He walked closer to me, but I didn't even move a step backwards. I stood there, nervously. Then he began: "I see that you recognize what I am, who I am. I came here to _help_ you. Just like my **master** promised you."

"Yeah. I recognized who you are. It wasn't that hard to guess, you are really big and tall compared to average students and teachers after all" I replied.

"I see that you have a sense of humour." he said with a sarcastic tone.

"And I see that you have can feel, unlike the other guy that your **master** sent me the last time." I said with anger in my voice, remembering what the other Eraser did to my sister.

"Well. He's dead now and I'm his replacement. So you should get used to me." He said.

"Why should I? You'll be dead by tomorrow anyway" I answered.

Before I knew it, I was taking my heels off. Then I unfolded my wings, tightened my fists and was getting ready.

I could see him tightening his fists as well, but also, he was growing his claws. He had claws and I was getting a bit more nervous. He was getting ready to fight as well. To _teach_ me.

Then the Eraser started speaking again;

"Now now. There is no need to get worked up for anything yet." he said.

"Look who's talking." I replied, staring at his claws.

"I just put them out for self defence, just in case you start attacking me without a notice." he said with an amused expression.

"Let's just get this over with." I replied.

I didn't want to drag this for a long time. Sooner or later, Claire or Emelia would eventually notice that I was missing and start looking for me, but I didn't want that to happen.

"Let's just be patient. My master told me to send his message to you. He said that you will find one of your flock members tonight, and I am here to assist you and your friend with discovering and finding your true powers." He said.

"So one of my flock members is here today? At the dance? How... How far does this member know about his or her power?" I asked curiously and anxiously.

"Yes, one of your flock member is here tonight at your stupid little dance party. And he knows that he has wings, but nothing else yet. Well, hopefully that changes tonight, however, from the looks of things, he might die knowing nothing. Ah, there he is. He's finally here to join us." he said with a smirk on this face and joy in his voice.

I immediately turned around. And my heart stopped.

I saw someone unexpected. Someone I didn't want to see. Someone who I always, deep in my heart, wished to become a member of my flock, but also who I always strongly wished to not be involved in this. Someone I didn't want to hurt. Someone I couldn't forget. Jae.

Jae was standing right behind me. He was just standing there. Staring at my wings and then the Eraser. By hearing how hard he was panting, I could tell that he either ran here or was shocked. From his expression, I could see that he wasn't surprised to see the wings, but he was surprised of seeing **me** with wings. He was probably also surprised to see the Eraser's claws, just as I was. Then without looking twice at Jae's face, I immediately turned back to the Eraser.

"He's one of them? My flock member? Jae is?" I asked with an expression and tone filled with anxiety. My mind went blank. My mind went dark. I was filled with fear.

"Yes, he is. Jae Degray is the second member of your flock," the Eraser answered.

"Why? He can't be in this. He can't be involved in this. He can't be my flock member." I replied. I was too shocked and scared.

"I don't know why, but my master told me to tell you this message when you discovered him. He said that you will be shocked, maybe a bit glad and very scared that Jae Degray is one of your flock members, and that you will regret choosing him." He said with no expression.

"What do you mean by I'll be glad? I'm definitely not glad to discover that he's one of my flock members. And what do you mean when you said _**I**_ chose him?" I asked with worried, scared, and curious expression and tone.

"I cannot answer to your questions. You should ask my master if you so desire answers" He answered calmly.

"Then bring your god damn master here!" I demanded.

"He does not have time for someone like you. And neither do I. Since everyone my master wished for me to bring together tonight is here, shall we begin and get this over with just as you requested earlier?" He replied.

Then without any hesitation, he began running towards me with his claws pointing directly at me. I immediately jumped up to dodge him, but as I was jumping up, I saw his expression; he smirked at me.

I soon realized he wasn't aiming for me.

He was aiming for Jae who was standing behind me shocked by everything that was happening. Jae has never been in a fight with an Eraser. He doesn't know. Jae's eyes were focused on me, to my wings, and he couldn't see the Eraser, who was running towards him with his claws pointing at him.

Then I yelled and moved with all my power: "No!"

As soon as Jae heard me yell, he immediately turned around to face the Eraser. The Eraser was seconds away from him with his long sharp claws ready to strike him.

I thought I could make it. I thought I was fast enough to save him. Then I heard Jae yelp and gasp in pain, and I knew I was too late.

The next thing I realized was that Jae, who seemed helpless, was laid on the ground. I could see blood gushing out from his left shoulder. He was bleeding out, but he was going to survive, because I wasn't going to let him die. I knew I had to treat him immediately. I immediately dropped down to the ground, and ran towards him. However, before I could reach Jae, something made me fall. I was punched in the back with unbelievable strength by the Eraser. His punch threw me across the ground. I yelped in pain.

And I wondered, maybe if I was faster and stronger, could I have protected Jae? Could I have made a difference? Could I have protected my sister?

However, the reality was clear that I wasn't.

I tried to get back up. It hurt so much, but I had to get back up.

When I was finally able to get back up, the Eraser was relaxingly waiting for me and Jae to get up and attack him. I could see that Jae was trying to get up, but was losing too much blood. I had to protect him. It was my only chance to save him. I wasn't going to make the same mistake again by hurting my loved ones because of my weakness. Then the Eraser started talking;

"You both are pathetically weak. At least the girl knows what her powers are: healing. But the boy doesn't have a clue. Hmm... What should I do with both of you?" He said with a bit of amusement.

I hated him. I wanted to kill him, but he was right. We both were really weak, and Jae barely knows about his power. It was all up to me to buy time and end the Eraser. I had to focus. I needed to think harder.

First, I focused my attention to Jae, who was still trying to get up, but was losing more blood by trying.

"Jae. Just stay still for a bit. Don't move. You don't have to help. I got this. I think we have a lot to catch up on, but 'till then, I need you to stay with me. I need you to stay alive. Okay?" I aked sincerely with very little energy left in me, trying to make sure he heard me.

Then I focused back on the Eraser, who was standing right between me and Jae. I walked a step closer and spit at his foot.

"By the way, you're the weak one. I was just warming up." I said trying to sound confident.

"I'm sure you were, little girl. Then shall we continue instead of talking more." he said relaxingly. He glimpsed at Jae, who was trying to pull himself together to help me as soon as he could, and back at me for a bit.

"But wait. I'll be your only opponent tonight. Jae barely knows anything about this and that seems hardly fair. So just you and me tonight. No one else getting hurt or more involved." I said, looking back and forth at Jae and the Eraser.

"Oh. I see. You're trying to protect him, aren't you? Because of what happened to your sister last time. Well I can't accept your request. You see, my master told me that your loved ones, such as Jae, would be the key to your true power. So no, I have to make sure I involve him in this, but I'll make this quick for him," He answered with a little bit of pity in his voice, and he grinned a bit as well. Then slowly, the Eraser took out a gun. He immediately pointed it towards Jae. My eyes widened. This is what he meant by he was going to make it quick.

I was confident that the Eraser wasn't going to hesitate with killing Jae.

Jae was still on the ground. He couldn't move and his injury was getting worse as he was losing more blood. But his eyes were facing me. His expression told me to escape and save myself, but he and I both knew I wouldn't. I couldn't.

Then a flash of memory came back to me, memory of the days that we spent together in. How we always argued about everything, but laughed about everything. How he was always there to make me feel better and happier. How I used to think that he was the _one_ for me. And how I always wanted to turn time and repeat everything.

But before I knew it, I was already back in reality. We were too far from our past now. I was broken. Jae was broken.

Now I saw the reality, and how easily a person could be killed. I needed to protect him. This was my second chance. I didn't want to lose him again.

The Eraser was deciding on where to shoot Jae, and when he had made up his mind, he was going to pull the trigger. But before he did, I ran towards Jae. All I could think about was saving Jae. This time I might be able to get to him. I might actually reach him.

I pulled all the energy left in me, every bits of energy left in me, together and ran as fast as I could.

Then I heard a gunshot.

The Eraser had pulled the trigger. He seemed a bit surprised at first, but then he smirked.

I couldn't keep my eyes open to see who got shot.

But I knew it was either me or Jae.

Then I slowly fell on my knees.

I saw Jae's face and he looked rather scared, shocked, and terrified.

But I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't hear anything.

Then slowly, I heard Jae calling my name out loud. And slowly, I felt something in my abdomen.

I felt pain.

I looked down to my abdomen and saw blood dripping down. It was my blood.

I soon realized I was falling down, and I was the one who got shot.

Jae could now get up a bit. I could see that he has healed a bit. He wasn't bleeding that much anymore. He was healing. He was now holding me tight. He was telling me something, but I couldn't hear him.

Then I smiled at him.

I knew I was losing consciousness slowly, but it was worth it because I could protect one person that I cared for.

I protected someone today, and that's all that mattered.

Without a sound or expression, I was in Jae's arms.

Then closed my eyes into darkness and felt nothing.


	9. Chapter 9

Then I slowly fell on my knees.

I felt pain.

I fell into Jae's arms without a sound.

Then closed my eyes and fell into darkness.

 **Chapter 9**

 **-Jae-**

As the big monster began pointing his gun at me, I tried to get myself up. But it was no use. I was too weak and slow.

Then there was a gunshot. But I didn't feel anything. I didn't feel any pain.

The next thing I realized was catching Sherra in my arms as she fell to the ground.

She took the shot for me to save me.

"Sherra!" I called as I shook her gently.

She didn't respond with her eyes slowing shutting close.

I just sat there holding her in my arms. I couldn't feel anything but anger.

Then I slowly, carefully unfolded my wings just as Sherra did before. My wound was now healed enough for me to have some strength. After gently laying Sherra on the ground, I got up on my feet.

I, then, focused my attention to the big monster.

I was concentrated on nothing but the monster, as the monster did the same.

"Just like my **master** expected. She would do anything to prevent from someone else getting hurt. She seems to care for you, boy. But it's a pity that you couldn't lift a finger. You're weak. You're all weak. Well, I'll leave for today. I have to report my master of the results that I gained tonight" he finished.

"Stay right there. I'm not finished yet," I said, stopping his steps.

"Oh. You wish to avenge her. But I don't think she can last that long," he said while eyeing at Sherra. "It's over." he finished and turned to walk away.

Instantly, I jumped up to fly towards him then kicked him hard. He flew across the sidewalk and crashed into a car. I do have to admit, I was surprised at my own strength.

"Didn't see that coming? Guess I'm not that weak after all," I said.

The monster soon got up. He looked pretty pissed off and a bit surprised.

He smirked at me. "You amuse me. Your strength and progress will impress my **master.** Making my observation today more valuable. I guess I have to test you and report it to my **master** as well." he said with an impressed expression.

"If you live through tonight that is." I replied.

Running as fast as possible, I threw a punch at him. He steadily stopped me with just one hand, and tossed me to the ground. There was no time to lose. I had to be quick. He marched towards me as I got up. He was now standing just in front of me. I instantly jumped and kicked his side with my knee. He fell.

Then, I quickly moved to grab his gun which was laying on the ground, and shot him without hesitation.

The monster was bleeding as he ran towards me with his sharp claws. I ran toward him as well. Then I ducked down, knocking his legs down and making him fall, and shot him in the heart. More than one time. He dropped dead. He didn't move. He was dead, and I killed him.

And it was over.

After making sure the monster was dead, I ran to Sherra who laid still on the ground.

I picked her up and held her tight in my arms.

I gently, yet quickly picked her up with my arms, then unfolded my wings and flew towards the hospital.

When I reached the hospital, it was around 12am. I ran into the Emergency Room and yelled for help. Soon, some nurses and doctors brought out a stretcher to put Sherra on and carried her to an operating room.

Then the nurses walked towards me and asked if I was okay while pointing at my left shoulder.

The wound had almost completely healed, but there was so much blood on my shirt. I told them I was fine. However, the nurses insisted they put me on a hospital bed and let a doctor check to make sure.

I just followed their instructions, and slowly fell asleep on the bed.

 **\- Sherra -**

When I woke up, I found myself in a bright room with an unpleasant scent surrounding me. I was in a hospital.

I tried to sit up, but the pain in my stomach stopped myself from it.

Then I remembered what happened last night between the Eraser, Jae, and me. Until I was interrupted by a nurse. "You're awake. I'll notify your family," she said gently.

In just a few minutes after the nurse left, my sister, Lacie, entered the room with someone who I wanted to make sure was alive, Jae.

My sister looked angry, but I didn't have a clue to what Jae was feeling.

Lacie walked towards the bed and sat on the chair beside me. Jae just stood behind her while staring at me.

"Hey. How are you feeling? You feeling okay?" she asked with a gentle smile and worried expression on her face.

"Yeah yeah. I don't feel perfect, but I'll get better soon. You know I heal fast." I reassured her.

"Okay, so don't get mad, but I heard what happened from Jae. He wasn't willing to tell me, so I had to practically dig it out of him. I knew this was like the last time," Lacie paused. "So I told mom that you weren't feeling well. She and I, of course, immediately left to come here." Lacie said.

"Okay. So what happened next? I'm guessing the hospital or mom probably called the police and they came to question Jae. So what did you tell them Jae?" I asked Jae.

"He told them what I asked him to tell them." said my sister proudly.

"You know... Since I suspected what happened and went through this before, I went to Jae before the police got to him. I told him to tell the police that the kidnapper that kidnapped me had a brother who wanted to kill you. That the brother thought the kidnapper who kidnapped him, his brother, was killed by you. So he wanted to kill you to avenge him. Then Jae saw what happened and was trying to help you. But you both ended up getting extremely injured, and actually almost killed. And in the end. the kidnapper's brother killed himself just like his brother did." Lacie said confidently and proudly.

"So you made another story up? That fast? Well, I'll give you the credit for that," I replied. At first, smiling a bit, but eventually making a sad expression at Jae.

"Thank you! I'm actually quite proud of my own work. And yes, I know what actually happened. I heard what happened from Jae. But I didn't tell him anything. I thought that was your story to tell," Lacie said. "Okay, so I'm going to contact mom's work to let her know your awake, and leave you guys to talk," said Lacie, then she walked out of the room.

"Thank you, Lacie. I really appreciate it," I said to Lacie while giving her a smile.

I was actually quite proud of my sister. I'm sure she felt like a grown up now.

Lacie shut the door closed as she left. Jae and I stayed awkwardly silent for a while until Jae broke the silence.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine, I'll be back in just a few days," I said with a small smile.

"By the way, thanks for saving me yesterday," he said sincerely.

"Oh that... I guess you're welcome," I responded. "You should probably take a seat. This is going to be a long story," I told him as I pointed at the chart next to me. Then I began my story.

I told Jae everything that has happened to me so far. From the very beginning. From when I had the dream, until yesterday. I explained about this _scientist_ we had to look for from now on, how he was going to send his _people_ to teach us to improve our _strength_ and _gifts_ and also to help us with finding the rest of our flock members. I also told him not to tell anyone about his wings and secrets. And told him of the consequences when I told my sister, Lacie, about my secret.

I could see that he understood everything, and he had a lot of questions he wanted to ask me. But I couldn't give him all the answers, because I didn't know the answers myself.

Jae looked shocked. Any would be if they were us.

So I reached out my hand and put it on top of Jae's to tell him that he wasn't alone.

Then Jae's eyes looked back at me, and I knew he was trying to tell me that I wasn't alone either.

And I knew I found one.

I found the second member of my flock.

I wasn't alone anymore.

Because I found him.

I found Jae.


	10. Chapter 10

I wasn't alone anymore.

Because I found him.

I found Jae.

 **Chapter 10**

For the next 2 days, I didn't go to school because I had to stay at the hospital. I had to get fully recovered from the injury that I got during the night of the semi-formal at my school. The night that I discovered my second member of the flock, Jae. I told Jae that it would be better if he didn't go back to school until I recovered, just in case another _incident_ involving Erasers occur. He obviously refused, so we argued a bit about that, but at the end, I won and he stayed at the hospital with me. Although, I basically threatened him using, "oh, I got hurt because of you. My mother works, my sister has to go to school, and I need a company," trying to make him guilty, which in this case worked perfectly because he stayed.

Jae kept me company, even though I slept most of the time. At one point, he told me that he didn't know how to explain what had happened on the night of the semi-formal to his parents, so he used my sister, Lacie's made-up story to explain it to his parents. Apparently, they didn't question him more about it, which I found surprising.

So basically my schedule during the past 2 days was: In the mornings, I spent my time sleeping in, eating, resting, and talking to Jae who visited me. In the afternoons, my mom and sister visited me so I spent time with them. But at night, I would sneak out of the hospital, meet Jae, and we spent hours flying and discovering our powers; which I do have to say, we are definitely getting better at flying. During our little flying trips, Jae and I caught up on things. We talked about basic stuff in life. The nicest part about the flying trip with Jae is that I don't feel awkward with Jae anymore. It was like the old days again. We also tried to talk about the possible members of the flock, but we obviously had no idea. Overall, I had a good time.

After the 2 days, I was fully recovered. I could move freely like before. The doctor was shocked by the speed of my recovery, even though my injuries weren't that major by the time I arrived at the hospital in the beginning. The doctor didn't know how I recovered so quickly, but I did. It was because I wasn't a normal human. After my final check-up, I went back home with my mom and sister.

On the next day, I went back to school and my life was back on track. Since I was only gone for a few days, no one asked me why I was gone except for my close friends; Emelia and Claire. I had to tell them I wasn't feeling well, and they had to believe me. Jae and I still met every night to practice flying. I think we both discovered that flying was the only thing that took our minds off everything else that was happening in our lives.

After another few days, all the seniors at Arizona S.S. went on a field trip. The field trip was to let the seniors get their minds off the stress they were experiencing while trying to make post-secondary education choices by having a day for themselves to explore a small town. First, we got on the school buses to get to a small town, which was located just outside the city we were living in. The city we lived in was the biggest city in Arizona; Phoenix. When we arrived at the entrance of the small town, we got exited the bus. The town was beautiful. It was located right near a huge, beautiful mountain forest. It was very different from a city where everyone and everything are loud and busy. The town was quiet, yet warm and welcoming. The senior students were divided into groups with tourists who explained the history of the town and the area. Everyone then received free time to explore the town and the mountain forest, but were instructed not to go past a certain point. Majority of the students decided to first grab lunch in the town, but there were some student who decided to explore the mountain forest first; including myself. Claire, Emelia, and I, along with some other 15-20 students, began exploring the forest.

"This place is so beautiful and so peaceful", said Emelia.

"It is, but it's kind of way too quiet for my taste," said Claire, who seemed unsatisfied.

"I don't mind the quiet and peacefulness, but it is kind of weird. Didn't the tourist say this town is very well known? But look around. There's no one else in this mountain forest except the people from our school." I replied.

Claire and Emelia both agreed with me by nodding their heads.

I expected this town to be full of visitors and hikers, but there seemed to be no one around except for the town's people.

Eventually, we reached the "Do not enter" signs that the teachers placed for the students to not get lost. From that point, we could see the whole town below. It was absolutely beautiful. Emelia, Claire, and I took a bunch of pictures together, then we just enjoyed the view until the two of them decided to go to the water fountain nearby, and I decided to stay a bit longer to enjoy the view. Looking down from above made me feel so relaxed and peaceful. It was then I realized that it was a great idea to come here as our field trip. Everything was going smoothly until Claire and Emelia ran towards me with a news.

"Sherra, did you hear? Someone went missing." said Emelia with a worried expression and tone.

"We just heard the teachers talking when we went to get water. They said his friends didn't notice him gone till now. His friends said he didn't feel well while he was hiking up the mountain, so he told them he was going to the bathroom in the town, but he never came back. They were supposed to meet in the mountain forest in 20 minutes, but he never showed up. Now he's nowhere to be found." said Claire in a rush.

This already sounded really bad. But lately, all the bad things in this world seemed to be happening to me or the people around me, so I got more worried thinking it could be Jae.

"Okay, so who is it? Is it someone you guys know? Because you both look really worried." I asked impatiently.

Claire and Emelia then exchanged a look, and replied.

"We know of him, but barely know him. But we do know that you know him, which is why we came to tell you about it. Because it's Elijah," answered Claire.

"What?" I whispered quietly. Then I sighed out of the realization of understanding what was happening. I wasn't stupid. I was right about bad things happening to people around me. There was no way Elijah's disappearance was a coincidence. On the back of my head, I was putting the puzzles together and realized that it was the _scientist_ ; he did this.

Claire and Emeila tried to make me stay calm, but I couldn't. Remembering all the things that the _scientist_ and the Erasers did to _**teach**_ me and Jae of our power, I couldn't stay calm. I couldn't watch another person get hurt. Without saying another word, I just searched for Jae. Thankfully, Jae wasn't too far off. He was in a crowd of people who just began hiking up the mountain forest. He seemed to be in a crowd of his friends and some girls, but that wasn't going to stop me from approaching. Without hesitation, I approached the crowd and grabbed Jae's arm.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to talk to you," I said. Then without waiting for a reply, I dragged Jae out of the crowd.

"What's wrong?" He asked immediately with a worried expression.

"Where's your best friend?" I asked with a bitter tone. I

"Which one?" Jae asked without hesitation.

"Elijah." I answered immediately.

"He said he was going to the forest first. Why?" Jae asked with a confused tone.

"He's missing. And from everything that's been happening to us lately, I really don't think this is a coincidence." replied.

"It's not a coincidence." Jae reassured me.

"We have to find him," I stated. "I was thinking, where would be a good spot for an Eraser to not catch the public's eyes, yet close enough for us to reach..."

"The forest," Jae responded, which was exactly I was thinking of.

From there, Jae and I began hiking up the mountain forest as fast as we could until we reached the "Do not cross" signs that was placed by the teachers.

"You ready?" Jae asked.

"Yeah." I responded.

We jumped over the signs and ran up as fast as we could so no one would notice us. Then when we were far enough from everyone else, we unfolded our wings and flew up, and started our way up the mountain.

When we reached the top of the mountain, there was no one to be found. We decided to search around the mountain from above, but Elijah could not be seen.

Then, on the opposite side of the mountain from where the rest of the students were, I saw a body laid on the ground. At first, I wasn't sure if it was a person or not nor if the person was alive or not so I decided to approach it.

"Jae," I called.

Jae was a bit far away from where I was, but he could hear me because of our developed senses; including hearing.

When Jae arrived at where I was, I pointed at the figure to direct him to the person. Then we both flew down towards the figure.

I was right, it was Elijah. I immediately ran to him and checked his pulse.

It was beating.

He wasn't dead.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

It was Elijah. I immediately ran to him and checked his pulse.

Then I felt a beating pulse. He was alive.

"He's okay," I told Jae who then relaxed his expression.

I leaned down and placed Elijah's left arm over my shoulder to help him stand up, so that we could move him from here.

"Hey, I'll do it," said Jae, who then reached out to take over my place to carry Elijah down.

However, before Jae could assist me, we heard loud footsteps. We immediately turned our attention to where the noise was coming from. Then I gently placed Elijah down against a tree, because I knew that wherever and whoever the noise was coming from, it wasn't a good sign. Jae and I exchanged dark, worried looks. Our senses were stronger so we knew something was coming. Our guards were up. Then from afar, we could see big figures coming towards us. Without guessing, we knew who they were. They were back. Erasers were back.

Jae, Elijah, and I were soon surrounded by Erasers. They sure brought a lot of them today. There were around a dozen of them. Meaning we were seriously out numbered. Elijah was still not awake, which seemed to be in our favour because I didn't know how to explain this to him too. Then one of the Erasers took a step forward;

"It is good to see you again Sherra. My dear little girl," he said, and without a doubt, I knew it was the scientist from my dreams.

"It's you, again. Why don't you come out and talk to me in person? That way I can at least choose one person to point my finger at for everything that's happened to us," I responded with hatred in my tone and expression.

"Oh Sweetie. Why would I want to come out when you threaten me like this? You should be more convincing than that to get me to see you," he said with a joyful tone. I clenched my jaw tight. Now I was just pissed.

However, before I could go on, I heard someone yelp behind me. I turned around and saw an Eraser laid dead on the ground while Jae just stood there and looked down on it.

"Is this more convincing for you?" asked Jae with no expression.

"Ah, You. You're not the ideal person I would've chosen, but this is the way it is. So how does it feel to have so much power? Did you tell your parents? Although, I'm guessing that you didn't knowing what had happened to Sherra's sister," the scientist stated as he smirked at Jae.

"Oh I feel great, thanks to you showing up today. Because I heard that you did this to us, so it's so nice finally meeting you," said Jae with a sarcastic tone and expression.

"Well, you're a funny one," replied the scientist with an annoyed expression.

I smiled at Jae as he succeeded in annoying the scientist, which I couldn't do.

"What did you do to Elijah?" I asked, angrily.

"Dear girl, I think you already know the answer to that," answered the scientist.

I clenched my jaw tight with hatred on my face. My mind was filled with anger and hatred towards him for hurting innocent people and ruining my life. I quickly released my wings and started running towards him. Without having a second thought or stopping, I pulled my first back to punch him. He grinned at me. Then, suddenly, a few Erasers threw themselves in front of the Eraser that the scientist was using to communicate with me and Jae. I had no choice but to get rid of them first.

Soon, I realized both Jae and I weren't fighting to win, we were fighting to survive. We were strong, but seriously out numbered. By the time I knocked down the Erasers who were standing between me and the scientist, the scientist was nowhere to be found. I looked around to every direction from where I was standing to find him, but he was already gone. He got away again. I was furious. When I focused my attention back to the fight, all the Erasers that I knocked down were starting to get back up again. There were still too many Erasers left for just me and Jae to get rid of. This was never going to end unless we killed them. There was no other way. Either we die or they die.

I pulled myself back together and flew up. I then jumped down on one of the Erasers and snapped his neck as hard as I could. With a "snap" sound from his neck bone snapping, he fell and laid soundlessly dead. I got up and breathed hard. I didn't have time to think. I just moved onto the next one with a unconditional desire to survive. I turned to face Jae who seemed as hopeless as I was from this fight. Jae and I continued fighting.

It seemed that Jae already figured out they had to die in order for us to survive. He seemed to have figured that out before I did, because, so far, he killed more Erasers than I did. Yet, there were still so many of them left. Jae and I continued fighting.

Then I suddenly heard Jae yelp. I immediately turned around and found an Eraser's claws in Jae's left arm. The Eraser immediately pulled his claws out of Jae's arm. Jae gasped in pain and took a few steps backward. It was a deep wound, but I could see that he was beginning to heal himself. Then suddenly, I felt something piercing into my back. I immediately knew it was an Eraser. But I couldn't move to push him away. I should've never turned my back against my enemy. I fell on my knees. I could feel my own skin, tissue, and body tear apart. Jae immediately ran over and snapped the Eraser's, who pierced his claws into my back, neck. The Eraser was now dead, but his claws were still inside my back. Then, Jae pulled the Eraser away from me, pulling his claws out of my back. I gasped and yelped in pain.

"I'm sorry," apologized Jae.

"No, you did me a favor," I thanked him.

I was still kneeling on the ground in pain. Jae looked at me with a worried expression. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine in any minute. Go." I reassured him. Before Jae could give me any kind of response, a few Erasers left alive ran towards us.

I knew my injury would take a bit longer to heal than Jae's arm injury which had already fully healed itself, but I knew mine would heal itself pretty quickly also. I just needed some time. I saw blood dripping down on Jae's face from a cut an Eraser's claws created. But he couldn't even seem to have noticed it from the fight. I felt myself almost completely healed. I slowly began pulling myself together to join Jae in the fight until when all of a sudden, I heard someone call my name; "Sherra?" someone called.

I immediately looked over to whoever it was coming from. My eyes widened. It was Elijah. His eyes directly facing me. Elijah was awake. However, that wasn't the reason why I was shocked. My eyes focused from Elijah to something dark brown on his back.

"Sherra." called Elijah, again.

I was too shocked. I mean, how was I going to explain all of this to him.

"Jae. Jace!" I called for Jae.

"Just a sec. I'm kind of busy at the moment." Jace replied. I had completely forgotten that Jae was still in the fight, trying to get rid of the rest of the Erasers, which I was going to join until I got distracted by Elijah.

In just a few minutes, Jae landed down right beside me. I realized he had successfully killed the last few Erasers there were left. I could hear him pant hard.

"What's wro..." began Jae, but trailed off as he noticed the exact same thing I did looking at Elijah.

I pointed my finger at Daniel and the big brown object behind him. Jae was already looking at it too. Looking at Elijah's dark brown wings.

"Is that what I think it is?" Jae whispered quietly.

I just nodded in response.

"Did you just fly?" asked Elijah who seemed too confused by Jae's and my wings that he didn't even notice his own.

Then, Jae just silently directed Elijah's attention to his own wings. Elijah followed the direction Jae was pointing at, turned around, and noticed his own wings. Elijah couldn't even seem to express his shock, he just stared.

"I think we just found our next member," I told Jae. Which he didn't even seem to be shocked about as he stared at me with a worried expression on his face.

"Are you okay?" Jae asked, while looking at my wound.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I've completely healed," I responded and began standing up. "Are you?" I asked Jae.

"Yeah," Jae responded with a tired expression. Jae and I both turned to witness all dozen Erasers who laid dead on the ground. We both just looked at them with exhausted and tired expressions. Then suddenly, we saw one of them twitch and move.

I took a step forward, but before I could move any farther, Jae grabbed my wrist and stopped me.

"What are you doing?" I asked with a confused expression.

"Why don't you leave this to me and the newbie to take care of?" offered Jae while looking back at Elijah.

"Are you out of your mind? He just got his wings," I stated.

"He has to learn eventually. I'll just show him what we're dealing with. He can take it," Jae answered. He sounded so sure. But before I could stop him, he leaned towards Elijah and helped him stand up.

"Just be careful. Okay?" I said. I wasn't worried about Jae. I knew Jae was capable of killing one Eraser. I was worried about Elijah, who just literally got his wings.

"Okay mom," Jae sarcastically responded and he was off with Elijah.

Jae made Elijah stand just a few steps in front of me. He then went through step by step to show Elijah what an Eraser is and what kind of threat they have against us. As for me, I just stood there judging. Jae seemed to be enjoying this way too much. Then I looked down at my shirt. There was blood everywhere on it. It wasn't all my blood. I could still feel and picture me killing and Erasers dying. I shut my eyes tightly, remembering through what happened today, until I was interrupted by a familiar sound. It was the sound of a neck snapping.

I looked up and saw Jae standing with Elijah. They seemed to have killed the last Eraser there was. At first, I thought Jae killed him, but when I looked at Elijah, I knew Elijah had killed him. Because he had the same expression that Jae and I had when we first killed an Eraser. An expression that seemed to have lost its way. I could see that we were all exhausted and tired from today.

"Let's go home," I said gently.

Elijah quickly checked his phone, "It's 4pm. We were supposed to leave at 3pm. We're definitely going to get in trouble," stated Elijah.

"Well, nothing new for me there," joked Jae.

Then we began walking down the mountain forest. But then, I noticed a person behind a tree that was just a few feet away.

"Wait. There's someone here," I immediately stopped and pointed my finger at the tree that I saw the person at.

Jae, Elijah, and I all just stared at the tree. Waiting for the person to make any kind of movement.

Then without another word said to make the person come out from hiding, the person revealed oneself. The person had a shocked and scared expression on her face, yet she didn't seem to be afraid of us as she revealed herself to us.

Then I took a step closer.

My eyes widened and I gasped.

The person had blue-gray eyes with blonde hair. She looked too familiar.

Her blue-gray eyes stared back at us.

"Haley" said Elijah.


	12. Chapter 12

"Haley" said Elijah.

 **Chapter 12**

There was nothing but absolute silence. No movement. No words spoken. Stunned, we all just stood there staring at each other. 'Don't panic', I told myself as I knew I had to get my act together. I turned to Jae and Elijah to question what we should do, but only found them in the same shock that I was in 'til a few seconds ago. When I finally got their attention, which I thought would help me figure this situation out, nothing changed. We were all still confused as to what we should do. So I decided to speak, because someone had to.

"Haley, please don't freak out," I said, trying to calm her down.

She said nothing as she continued to just stare at us, probably our wings.

Carefully, trying not to scare her, I took a step towards her. Which did not work, because she then took a step backwards with her expression now filled with fear. That was when I decided to slowly raise my hands in the air to show Haley that she has nothing to fear from us. This time, she did not move backwards, which meant that it was kind of working, so with my hands still raised, I took another step forward.

"Haley. We'll explain everything. Please just hear us out," I begged.

However, before I could continue and say another word, Haley quickly turned away from us and began running down the mountain towards where everyone from our school was waiting.

"Haley. Wait!" I yelled. But she did not look back nor reply.

I had a thought of chasing after her, but I didn't know what I was going to tell her if I did catch her, so I decided not to. Judging from no one else chasing after her, I knew Jae and Elijah felt the same.

"Well, that went well," said Jae, sarcastically.

I turned and gave him an annoyed look, which he answered with an annoying smile.

"Maybe we should've stopped her," I said with a worried tone and expression.

"No. We should try not to get her involved in this," said Elijah with a serious expression.

"Yeah, she would probably want to live," said Jae, which immediately made me glare at him, angrily.

"What?" Elijah immediately asked. Elijah had yet learned of what happened to my sister.

"We haven't had the time to explain it to you. When I first discovered that I was a hybrid, I told my sister everything because I was scared. And she almost died," I answered.

"It wasn't your fault," said Jae, with a serious expression, while gently placing his hand on my shoulder. I gave him a small smile, trying to let him know that I'm okay, but I wasn't.

"Just give Haley sometime," said Jae.

Without saying another word, we started our way down the mountain forest to meet with all the students from our school who were waiting for us.

"We have to give her time. We can see her tomorrow at school." Daniel said.

When we reached the bottom of the mountain and joined the students and teachers from our school who were looking for us, I knew we were going to be in a lot of trouble. We couldn't find Haley anywhere. She was probably hiding in the crowd of students. One of the teachers, who spotted us first, pulled us out and away from the rest of the students and began;

"Where have you all been? Do you have any idea how worried everyone was?" she asked. I had no clue who this teacher was, but she must have learned our faces probably when the teachers separated to look for us.

Jae, Elijah, and I said nothing. None of us knew who had to say what, so I carefully elbowed Elijah.

"I wasn't feeling well so I decided to look for a bathroom, but I got lost on my way. Eventually, it got to a point where I couldn't move at all, yet I was still completely lost. Around an hour later, Jae and Sherra found me. I'm very sorry," stated Elijah with a convincing tone and expression.

"We told you not to wonder around by yourself. You should've gone with a friend or at least known exactly where you needed to go. And you two! We specifically told all the students not to wonder around while we were searching for Elijah," she finished angrily.

"Sorry," Elijah, Jae, and I all apologized at the same time.

The teacher let out a loud sigh. "At least you guys are all safe and found Elijah. I'm glad you guys aren't hurt. But none of you should behave this way again. Understood?" she said.

"Yes," we replied.

Then the teacher walked away to inform the other teachers and students that we've been found, and that we could now all go back to the school, and to our homes.

Soon, all the students and teachers gathered and were waiting for the school bus to pick us up. I was waiting with Jae and Elijah until I heard someone calling my name. I turned around and saw Emelia and Claire walking towards me. Then I turned back to Jae and Elijah and began;

"I have to go. I guess I'll see you guys tonight." I stated.

"Okay. See you," Jae replied.

"Bye," Elijah replied. And I walked away.

"What's tonight?" asked Elijah, confused.

Jae smiled, "Oh, you'll see," said Jae, delighted.

As Emelia, Claire, and I walked onto the school buses, they began their questioning.

"Where did you go?" asked Emelia.

"You were gone for like an hour. Elijah was missing. All the teachers were freaking out." said Claire.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to worry anyone, so I decided to just leave without telling either of you. But I guess that made things worse?" I asked.

"Yes. It did!" replied Emelia.

"Okay. Honestly, Something's up. You've been acting weird lately. I know you had a lot going on in your life lately. But today, you came back with Jae, who you haven't talked to for ages. Not to mention, you don't particularly enjoy talking to or about him. Just, what's going on?" said Claire.

"Jae and I... We are, um, just friends now. I really appreciate you guys being worried about me, I really do, but I'm okay. Really, I am," I replied. I probably wasn't convincing since Claire and Emelia did not seem to buy my answer, but they respected my wishes and stopped asking me about it.

The school buses eventually arrived at the school, and all the students left to go home. As I walked home. I ran through all the things that happened to me today in my head, which made me realize how tired I was.

When I got home, my mom wasn't back from work, but my sister, Lacie, was sitting on the sofa, watching Netflix. As soon as Lacie noticed I was home, she began;

"Weren't you supposed to be back like two hours?" asked Lacie, confused.

"Yeah, but Erasers happened," I replied, sounding frustrated.

"What happened?" asked Lacie. Her expression totally changed from confused to seriously worried.

So, even with almost no energy left in me, I sat down next to her and told her everything. Including what had happened to Elijah and about Haley.

"So Haley knows, but doesn't really know?" asked Lacie.

"We couldn't stop her. We were just as freaked out as she was, but she probably saw everything," I replied, which I then made me realize how bad this situation really was.

"So are you going to talk to her about this in the near future? Or pretend like you never saw her?" asked Lacie. This conversation was making me really anxious now.

"I don't know. I'll discuss it with Jae and Elijah later," I said calmly.

"Okay." answered Lacie, and gave me a gentle smile. She didn't ask me any more questions. Probably because she understood I was and had to figure this out with my flock.

When our conversation ended, I decided to take a nap for an hour or two to get my energy restored for tonight's activities; flying and homework. Two hours later, I woke up from the sound of my alarm clock ringing. I could hear my mom speaking on the phone downstairs, meaning she was home. Not to waste time, I went straight to my homework and got as much as I could get done until night came. It was 11pm. Both my mom and Lacie were sound asleep. I quietly sneak out of the house, as I have been doing so for the last few weeks, and met up with Jae and Elijah. It was weird that the number of people joining me was increasing, yet also really nice.

Jae and I flew like pros now, but Elijah was still in the process of trying to get used to the fact he has wings and can fly. I couldn't blame him. He did just get his wings today. Eventually, we stopped flying and talked about Haley. At the end of our discussion, we decided that we should go talk to her tomorrow after school. Around 1am, we headed back to our homes.

Next day, I woke up early, ate breakfast, then walked to school.

My first class today was chemistry, which I was really nervous about because Haley was in my chemistry class. I expected to see her in the classroom, which I desperately wanted to avoid, so I sat in my seat and waited. However, she never showed up. By lunch period, I realized she had not come to school today at all. I immediately knew Jae, Elijah, and I were the cause of her absence. Now I understood that she must have been really freaked out. Haley was never the type to freak out over much of anything actually, but I guess she was freaked out by us.

After chemistry ended, I proceeded to my second class, and when that was over, it was lunch period. I immediately left the class room and started searching for Jae and Elijah. It didn't take long to find them. They were always at the same spot with usually the same people. They were in a hallway with their friends and a group of girls. I hinted at them to come over to where I was as I didn't want to rudely interrupt their conversation. Thankfully, they noticed.

"Haley didn't come to school today, so I was thinking we should visit her house?" I asked.

"She wasn't in my math class either," Elijah replied.

"We definitely freaked her out," said Jae, who seemed to have found humour in this.

"So yes to visiting her after school?" I repeated.

"Why not. If she doesn't listen, we could just fly her out the window and make her listen," said Jae, with an amused tone and expression.

"That would send a message," agreed Elijah, then he smiled. I rolled my eyes at them both.

"Haha. Aren't you guys hilarious. No. We're not doing that," I answered. "I have to go. Let's meet after school then." Elijah and Jae nodded, then we separated.

Before I realized, school ended for the day. I sent my mom and sister a text that I'll be with my friends so I'll be home late to make sure they don't worry. I grabbed my backpack and met up with Jae and Elijah, who were waiting for me at the school entrance. We then headed to Haley's house.

When we arrived at Haley's house, we reached for the doorbell and pressed to ring it. Soon, someone opened the door. It was Haley's mother, Mrs. Darnell.

"Hello Mrs. Darnell. I'm not sure you still remember us, but I'm Sherra and this is Jae and Elijah. We are Haley's friends," I politely introduced us.

"Hello. Of course, I remember you three. You and Haley went to elementary school and are in high school together. I know your parents well too. How could I forget. So how can I help you all today?" asked Mrs. Darnell. She was as loving as I remembered her as.

"We just wanted to speak with Haley, that's all. She was absent today, so we wanted to see if she was okay. Could we just see her for a few minutes?" I asked politely with a big smile on my face.

"Of course. I'm actually leaving right now to see a friend of mine, but come in. She'll be in her room upstairs," said Mrs. Darnell as pointed to the stairs.

"Thank you Mrs. Darnell," I replied and we entered the house.

Jae, Elijah, and I began walking up the stairs. We soon noticed Mrs. Darnell starting her car engine and driving away; leaving the house. So the house was now just us three and Haley.

Eventually, we reached the door that said "Haley" on it. The door was slightly opened. I decided to knock before barging into her room.

"Haley. It's Sherra. Jae and Elijah are here too actually. Could we speak to you for a bit?" I asked carefully.

Through the gap created by the door, I could see that Haley was lying on her bed with blanket over her head. As soon as I finished my sentence, Haley immediately got up and faced our direction. I don't think she heard us come into the house. She seemed surprised and unexpected.

"Haley. You didn't get a chance to hear us out yesterday. We owe you an explanation," I said with a serious tone. Jae, Elijah, and I hadn't decided on what to tell her. Whether or not we should tell her the truth. I felt like we needed to explain her the truth, because I really couldn't see how else we were going to explain everything to her.

"What are you doing?" asked Elijah, with anger and confusion in his voice.

"Doing what we have to," I answered, determined with my decision.

Before I could begin myself to speak, someone grabbed my wrist. I immediately turned and discovered it was Jae. He was trying to tell me to stop.

"No. We can't hide this from her. She already saw everything. Trust me. I am most aware, out of all of us, of who's going to be paying the consequences. We just can't hide something that she already discovered," I stated. I was just as frustrated and angry as everyone else here.

"Stop," said Haley, suddenly. Her one word stopped our argument. "I don't want to know. You guys are weird. I'm weird. I was hallucinating yesterday. I was imagining things," said Haley as she was shaking. She was scared and terrified.

"We have to do this," I repeated. Then with a sigh, Elijah and Jae both agreed; "Fine."

"No! I don't want to know." Haley shouted.

I walked closer to Haley, trying to calm her down by giving her a hug. But she would freak out more as I got closer to her. At this point, we were getting nowhere. So I turned to both Elijah and Jae, let out a huge sigh and began:

"I hate myself for saying this. I really do. But my way is clearly not working," I said to them, looking defeated.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" asked Jae, looking excited.

"Yes," I answered, looking more defeated as I turned to Elijah.

"She'll hate me for this," said Elijah.

"She can't. She's losing her mind right now. She'll hate you if you don't do this," said Jae, trying to convince and reassure Elijah to do this.

"I know that. Okay. Let's just get this over with." Daniel said.

Then without hesitation, I walked towards the window in Haley's room and opened it as wide as I could. Thankfully, the sun was beginning to come down. As soon as I opened the window, Elijah quickly picked Haley up off her bed. Jae first jumped out of the window, me second, and Elijah carrying Haley followed. We flew up as high as we could. I could hear Haley screaming as we were flying higher up. I wasn't sure if she was screaming at our wings or because of the height. Eventually, we stopped and Haley's screams came to a stop.

"What are you?" asked Haley. No longer with an expression filled with fear, she was now calm and had expression filled with curiosity. The Haley that we knew was back.

"Are we flying right now? You guys have wings! What the heck?" asked Haley as she stared at our wings.

Out of nowhere, Jae, Elijah, and I started laughing at the transition of seeing Haley freaking out a few minutes ago to now acting like nothing ever happened. However, before any of us could answer her, I felt a large force of air blowing in our direction. Something was coming. I predicted it would be either a plane or a helicopter. I turned to face the direction the force of air was coming from, and so did Jae and Elijah. They noticed it too.

For a moment, we watched and waited to see what created the air force. Soon, from afar, we could see a flock of large figures coming towards us. I flew a bit forward to see what exactly it was.

When I could finally see what the figures were, I immediately took a step backwards in the air.

I could see what those figures were.

They were as familiar as ever.

It was impossible for me to forget after what they've done.

They were Erasers.

They've come back for us.

But they were different this time.

Now they had wings.

Just like us.


	13. Chapter 13

I could see what those figures were.

It was hard for me to forget them, after what they've done.

They were Erasers.

They've come back for us.

But they were different this time.

Now they had wings.

Just like us.

 **Chapter 13**

 **M** y eyes widened as I tried to stay as calm as I possible could. But I couldn't feel anything but fear as the Erasers moved closer towards Jae, Elijah, Haley and I. Judging from the absolute silence that filled the air, Jae and Elijah seemed as shocked as I was.

"Let me down..." paused Haley. "Aren't those what I saw on day of our field trip?" asked Haley, sounding terrified, as she broke the moment of silence Elijah, Jae and I were in.

None of us replied, but Haley already knew the answer to her own question. I had to think. It was obvious that once again, we were outnumbered. Once again, there were more Erasers than us. Elijah was carrying Haley. Even if Jae and I could buy Elijah enough time to return Haley safely back to her house, I wasn't sure whether or not the Erasers were going to let Haley live. There wasn't an option where we could all go back home safely.

"Sherra," called Jae, with his usual low-key tone. We already knew the answers to the calculation of our chances of survival, but we still didn't want to give up.

"I know. I'm trying to come up with something," I replied. I was running out of time and ideas. With each second passing by, the Erasers were getting closer to us.

"They're coming," said Elijah, but he didn't sound scared. He sounded determined. Determined to survive through this. That was the moment I realized that I shouldn't be trying to get out of this safely. I should be trying to find a way to survive. I turned to face Elijah, Jae, and Haley.

"We don't have a plan. But we do have a goal. To survive. We're not going to get our homes safely, as we all know, but we are going to get home," I said, trying to sound determined.

"Jae and I will fight. Elijah, you should keep Haley safe. I know you want to step into the fight and hep, but Jae and I are still a bit ahead on this whole fighting-with-our-hybrid-powers. Jae and I will try to buy you time to get Haley to a safe place, and then you can join us," I stated.

Elijah seemed to disagree at first, but he understood he needed to protect Haley. Jae and Elijah nodded as response.

"Even if anyone here gets hurt by chance, keep fighting without looking back or hesitating. Because the moment we pause, that's the moment we die," said Jae. Elijah and I nodded.

Then we got into our positions. Jae and I stood in the front while Elijah stood right behind us carrying Haley.

"We can do this. We've survived so far. We can survive through this. I'm not letting anyone die today," I said quietly, trying to be hopeful, as I faced directed at the Erasers approaching.

"I know," Jae responded.

"Don't die, okay?" I said, giving him a small smile.

"I always seem to find my way to stay alive," said Jae, jokingly. I smiled back.

"Elijah," called Haley, calmly. Elijah immediately turned his attention to Haley.

"Whatever you, Sherra, and Jae were trying to tell me today, I want to know all of it. I didn't mean to freak out at all of you. But it just happened, and I am sorry. I just wanted at least one of you to know that I want to listen," said Haley, as she tried to smile at Elijah.

"I know you do," said Elijah, smiling back.

Soon, I could see all the Erasers right in front of my eyes. As always, they gave me a sick feeling. They were bigger than the last ones I've met, and now, they had wings. They're wings were different from ours though. They seemed heavy, slow, and somehow rusty. I looked at them with my heart filled with anger. Before they could start, Jae began;

"Seems like someone got themselves an upgrade. Although, those wings... I wouldn't want to call those an upgrade," said Jae with a small grin on his face.

"I'm guessing your mastermind _doctor_ figured out that Haley now knows our secret? Although, I am impressed by how quickly he creates more of you after we killed like a dozen last time?" I asked, trying to sound stable. One of them stepped forward;

"Oh dear Sherra, how I enjoy watching your development. You're wondering how I made these Erasers so quickly? Well, you see, the organization I work under has thousands of scientists from all over the world hoping to make a new world with more gifted people. Are you satisfied with my answer, sweetie?" answered the Eraser. As soon as he replied, I knew immediately he was the _scientist_ from my dream and reality.

"Isn't it about time you stop playing hide-and-seek?" I questioned.

"No. It's not the time yet..." said the scientist.

"Clearly," said Jae. The scientist immediately turned to Jae.

"My boy, are you getting used to being a hybrid?" asked the scientist.

"Well. Except for the freaky wings, I'm doing just fine. I know how concerned you are with my interests and comfort," snapped Jae. I do have to say, the scientist did not seem too bright about Jae's response.

"Let's get to the point. I'm here today to train you all. To make sure you guys become strong independents," said the scientist, with satisfaction in his voice.

"Isn't that what you say every time we meet? And you always ended up almost killing at least one of us?" I asked.

"That was because all of you were weak," said the scientist.

"Ouch," said Jae.

"Maybe you should have made us stronger," I said.

"I do regret not raising all of you myself, but I'm trying to move past my mistakes by making you guys stronger now. Because we have big plans for all of you in this world," said the scientist.

"Keep talking," Jae demanded.

"Nonsense. Maybe when all of you come find me," replied the scientist.

"How do we find you then? You never give us any detail even though you want us to find you." I said.

"Follow your instinct child. Just go to wherever your instinct tells you to," said the scientist with smirk on his face.

"What?" I asked.

"Now. I can't waste more time talking. The sun is almost down. If we delay this any longer, we might not be able to see and catch what we drop," he said while looking directly at Holly. Then turned directly to me.

"Well, Sherra. It was nice seeing you again. Maybe the next time I see you, you might have your full flock. Who knows," finished the scientist, and with a puff, his presence disappeared from the Eraser he was using to cover his true identity.

As soon as the scientist finished talking and his presence no longer here, the Erasers immediately flew towards us. Jae, Elijah, and I immediately dodged them. I could immediately sense that we had the advantage of speed. I guess those wings of theirs were as heavy as they seemed. I was a bit amused.

"Does seem a bit heavy," I smirked.

They just stared back at me at first, but soon their faces crumbled with anger, then they flew towards us again with their claws out.

The Eraser's were slower than us. However, there were definitely more of them than us. Especially with Elijah only being able to defend with Haley in his arms. I soon realized, we were in a bigger fight than last time. Jae and I were both covered in blood. Although, our injuries healed quickly, the blood from our scars didn't fade away. With the number of Erasers alive decreasing slowly, Jae, Elijah, and I struggled to keep fighting. Soon, the minor injuries that we received from the Erasers' claws began becoming a major problem. Soon, some were piercing through us. One through our ribs, arms, abdomen, legs, and etc. I couldn't even hear myself screaming, because I was too focused on trying to kill the Erasers. It wasn't too difficult to fight them on one-on-one. All I had to do was fly around them and snap their neck. But the truth is that I'm not fighting one.

Eventually, Jae, Elijah, and I had to back up a bit. We quickly caught our breaths, and quickly prepared to continue.

"Everyone okay?" I asked quickly.

"Well, I'm alive," replied Jae.

"I'm not even fighting that much, so I'm doing better than both of you," replied Elijah while carrying Haley. With that, our short conversation ended.

I could see another 3 Eraser running towards me. I kicked one Eraser's right leg as hard as I could and broke it. I couldn't fight them all head on. I then grabbed another one's arm and twisted it. The Eraser yelped and screamed in pain. I could hear his bones twisting and snapping. To complete my final blow, I began reaching for its neck to snap it and kill him, but I was stopped. I felt a sharp pain. There was something sharp piercing through my right thigh. I could not see that there was an Eraser behind me with its flaws through my thigh. Then I felt another sharp pain on my left shoulder, but the claws pierced through my right thigh. The Eraser with one of his arms broken, which I caused, pierced his claws into my shoulder. I managed to remove one of the Eraser off me by kicking one off, but I still struggled to rid the Eraser behind me. With the Eraser who had pierced my should gone, my shoulder began to heal. However, I still had claws pierced through my right thigh. I continued to struggle. It wasn't a big problem until I began feeling weak and dizzy, which seemed to slow down my healing power. My thigh was feeling numb. So with all the energy and strength left inside me, I rotated myself in the air, reached to grab the Eraser's arm, pulled it out of my right thigh, and then snapped his neck. The Eraser was falling down to the ground. And myself, who had absolutely no strength left and yet had the time to fully heal, began falling also.

I was yet unable to open my wings to fly back up, because I was bleeding out and had no strength left.

Then I could see someone flying down towards me, but my vision was too blurry to see who exactly it was. As the person got closer to me, I could figure out who it was: Jae. He must've seen me falling down. He swooped down below me then caught me with his arms. Now I could clearly see Jae's face.

"I thought we decided to focus on the fight," I whispered at him weakly.

"I know, I know," responded Jae with a faint smile.

...

 **E** lijah and Haley could see me fall down with Jae immediately chasing after me. Now, they were stuck with the Eraser's on their own.

"Jae's caught her right? She's alive right?" asked Haley.

"Yes, and yes," replied Elijah with a relief.

"Then why do you look so worried?" asked Haley.

"Because we might not be." replied Elijah, staring at the Erasers in front of them.

"It's okay. I just need to hold them off until Jae and Sherra comes back," said Elijah, trying to sound as confident as he could. But he knew there were too many Erasers to fight alone.

"No. You can't. Even I can see that you can't fight them alone. Especially not with me you're carrying," responded Haley. She knew Elijah couldn't fight them alone with her in his arms.

"Just drop me," said Haley.

"Are you insane?" questioned Elijah.

"You can't fight them with me in your arms. Someone will catch me. I can see Sherra and Jae below us. I'm sure one of them will notice. Besides, I'm not going to reach the ground for like 5 minutes max from this height. So just drop me," rushed Haley. Elijah did nothing but stare in shock.

"I don't want to do this either. I don't want to die. So just do it while I let you before I regret it," rushed Haley, frustrated with the situation she and Elijah were in.

"No. It's too dangerous. I might not be able to get there in 5 minutes. Even if I can distract them and come after you, it's too dark right now, so I won't be able to see where you're falling down to. I can't risk that," replied Elijah, looking frustrated.

The Erasers who were standing a few feet away from them were now standing a few steps away from them. Haley and Elijah both knew they were out of time.

Soon, an Eraser had punched Elijah on the back from behind him. Elijah leaned forward and tried to find balance.

Then Haley, pushed herself away and off from Elijah's arms. She knew it was an insane decision, but she believed there was no other way. Now her fate was unpredictable.

...

"Thank you," I whispered quietly to Jae who held me tightly.

"Well, you are an expert at scaring the hell out of me," joked Jae.

"Wait. So you left Elijah and Haley. Alone," I stated, breaking the moment.

"Would you rather have had me let you fall to the ground?" questioned Jae, sounding a bit frustrated.

However, before I could answer to Jae, I felt a force of air falling down from above us. Soon, Jae and I could see a person with long hair passing by us and falling down. Soon after that, a number of dead bodies of the Erasers followed.

"How did? Did Elijah kill them all?" I asked. Looking more confused than ever.

"It's either Elijah or Haley. I thought he was carrying Haley?" Jae questioned as well.

Then both Jae's and my eyes widened. Because we both remembered the person with long hair who passed by us and fell down a few minutes ago. We couldn't see the person's face since it was too dark, but none of the Eraser's had long hair according to my memories. So there was only one possibility left.

"Haley," Jae and I said at the same time.

"We have to go get her," I said desperately with extremely worried tone and expression.

"I can't carry both of you," said Jae. I could clearly see that he couldn't since he had some severe injuries of his own.

"I can fly on my own now. We have to go look for her. Please Jae," I begged sincerely.

"You'll fall if I let you fly alone. I'm not letting that happen," said Jae.

Then we felt someone flying towards us from above. We immediately faced up. It was Elijah. However, he didn't stop to talk. He just continued to fly downwards. Jae and I followed him.

"Elijah! Haley, she..." I yelled.

"I know," Elijah replied.

"You dropped her?" asked Jae.

"No. Yes. She pushed herself off me, but I couldn't go after her because of the Erasers," said Elijah.

"She couldn't have survived from a fall from that height. Could she?" I asked.

"I don't know," replied Elijah, sounding hopeless.

"You don't even know where she could've been dropped at?" I asked with both anger and frustration in my tone and expression. I wasn't mad at Elijah. I was just frustrated and trying to find someone to blame. Even though I knew I got Haley involved, to begin with, by making Elijah carry her up into the air.

"Sherra," called Jae, calmly. Trying to calm me down.

We silently searched for another 5 minutes. My wounds were not completely healed. I asked Jae to let me down, and then we decided to separate to search for Haley.

After around 30 minutes, Jae and I gathered, but Elijah was still looking.

"Found anything?" I asked. However, Jae did not reply. So we flew to Elijah.

"Elijah," I called gently.

He did not respond, but continued his search for Haley. He didn't even seem to have been able to hear me. So I reached for his arm, pulled him, and gave him a hug. Elijah hugged back tightly. Elijah couldn't even seem to bring himself to cry as he was most likely blaming himself, and so I hugged him tighter;

"I know it's hard, but it's not your fault. It really isn't," I tried to comfort Elijah.

"Elijah, Sherra, and Jae," someone called.

The three of us immediately turned around to face whoever called our names.

There was a girl. She had beautiful straight blonde hair, pale white skin, and green eyes.

And there was a big shadow behind her.

The night was so dark, but the shadow behind her was as bright as the moonlight. Beautifully bright.

And without a second glance, I knew what the shadow was.

It was something that Jae, Elijah, and I all had in common: _Wings_.

And the girl, was Haley.

Haley could fly. She now had pure white wings.

Just like us.

Now, I found the 4th member of my flock.


	14. Chapter 14

The night was so dark, but the shadow behind her was as bright as the moonlight. Beautifully bright.

And without a second glance, I knew what the shadow was.

It was something that Jae, Elijah, and I all had in common: _Wings_.

And the girl, was Haley.

Haley could fly. She now had pure white wings.

Just like us.

Now, I found the 4th member of my flock.

 **Chapter 14**

"Haley?" called Elijah, sounding confused.

"Hi," replied Haley, trying to give a faint smile. She seemed exhausted and confused.

Without another word said, Elijah took a step forward in the air and hugged Haley. Haley hugged back gently, trying to hold her tears back.

"How long do we have to watch this?" whispered Jae. I elbowed him lightly in the arm, trying to keep him quiet from ruining the moment.

"Because there's a house below us with rooms," said Jae, once again whispering at me. I immediately gave him a look that clearly stated he should wait.

"You know we can hear you guys," said Haley, breaking the quietness.

Elijah and Haley were no longer hugging each other. They both now seemed calm and less afraid. I was glad that they were okay.

"So what happened?" I asked carefully, facing Haley.

"Well, I was falling down. Falling down the sky so quickly and powerlessly, It felt as if I was a piece of rock just dropping down. I thought I was going to die and felt so afraid. I just thought of wanting to live. Then the next thing I realized was that I was standing in the middle of air with a huge weight on my back. Which I soon realized were these huge wings," she finished, while looking back at her wings.

"We're so glad to see you," I said, giving her a smile.

"Well, welcome to the flock!" said Jae.

We figured that it would be best to now explain to Haley of everything that's happened so far. Since it was too dark outside, Haley gladly welcomed us to her home to provide a private space for us to talk.

"My parents won't be back 'till later," said Haley to reassure us that no one was in the house. Jae, Elijah and I all just nodded. We followed Haley to her living room. Then she glimpsed at us for a second.

"I have leftover pizza. If you guys are hungry," said Haley. Which we all immediately looked over with expressions filled with hunger.

Soon, we were holding and eating the leftover pizza as if we haven't eaten all day. We were absolutely exhausted from fighting Erasers, so the pizza tasted like heaven. After finishing the pizza, we went straight to business. Elijah, Jae, and I slowly and thoroughly explained to Haley of everything that happened up till today. Haley's reaction and expression was one that was familiar; the one every one of us have had before. She looked astonished by the story.

"I'm just trying to... trying to digest all of this," said Haley, trying to stay calm and strong.

"You don't have to," I said. I reached out my hand and placed it on top of Haley's hand. "You don't have to try to look so calm or strong. It's okay," I finished, and gave a small smile. Haley looked up at me and said nothing but nodded in response.

"I can't tell anyone? Not even my parents?" asked Haley.

"No," I responded. I could see Haley's face filled with sadness and worries, but she was not going to break down.

"We are going to find the rest of our flock members. Protect everyone and each other. Find the scientists, get all the answers, and make them undo what they've done. That is our plan, and we're going to do this together. All of us," I said, trying to sound confident.

 **A** fter explaining the situation and our plan to Haley, Jae, Elijah, and I decided that it was time for us to go home. The three of us left Haley's house and began walking to our homes. We walked in silence as we were too exhausted and lost from today's experience.

"I wonder if we're any different from them," I said quietly.

"The Erasers?" asked Elijah. I nodded in response.

"I don't know if they're even humans, but I keep wondering. I keep wondering if killing them to keep ourselves alive is justifiable," I said.

"There's always the option of letting them kill us," said Jae, sarcastically.

"I'm serious," I said, giving Jae a serious look.

"No, it's not. We want to hear and think that what we're doing is justifiable. But it's not, and we can't change that. All we can do is to live with it and try to be responsible for our actions," said Elijah, sounding unbelievably calm and sad, yet angry at the same time.

"More the reason why we need to find the scientists and stop all this mess," said Jae. Then this heavy conversation ended and we continued to walk to our homes silently.

 **N** ext day, I walked to school as I always have. I met up with Claire and Emelia, then walked to my first class. As usual, Mrs. Banes began the class by asking how everyone is feeling today, which as usual, everyone responded with a tired expression. Unlike usual, Mrs. Banes had a little announcement for the class about an anti-bullying assembly that was going to take place in two days. The assembly was called "The Pledge to End Bullying."

"I know that at Arizona Secondary School, we usually watched a different video every year about the campaign to educate us on this issue. However, this year is going to be a bit different. The FBI cyber bullying agency has made a generous decision to choose one school out of all schools in the state to have special guest speakers from the agency to come speak about the issue. I would say that's a great honor," said Mrs. Banes with an excited expression. I could clearly see that a lot of students were indeed impressed. Personally, I didn't really care who came to the assembly because it wasn't going to change the point of the assembly.

After my first and second class ended, the lunch bell rang. I was on my way to my locker, which was also where Claire and Emelia usually awaited for me to have lunch together, until someone grabbed my arm and stopped me. I turned around immediately and found Elijah and Haley standing there.

"We need to talk. It's important," said Elijah with a serious expression.

Conveniently, that was also when Claire and Emelia found me and called for me. "Hey. Sherra. Let's go. We're going out for lunch today," called Emelia across the hallway. However, I had to turn that down by asking them to go on ahead without me. Because as important as hanging out with my friends was, so was the duty of being a flock member/leader. Haley and Elijah led me to under a tree that was outside in the schoolyard.

"What's going on?" I asked with a worried tone and expression.

"It's about the assembly in two days," said Haley. I nodded in response. Then I heard a footstep behind us, which I reacted at first in defence until I realized it was just Jae.

"You guys wanted to meet up?" asked Jae as he joined us.

"Okay, so. When Haley and I heard about the anti-bullying assembly tomorrow with FBI representatives coming as special guest speakers, Haley and I did some thinking," said Elijah.

"Okay?" I responded, still confused. Then Haley and Elijah turned and exchanged a look.

"Think about it. It's an _assembly_ and we have special representatives from a branch agency of FBI coming to talk to us," said Haley.

I stared back at her, still, with a confused expression.

"I mean, Yes! An anti-bullying assembly is an important awareness assembly. But special FBI representatives coming to talk to us about it out of the blue?" continued Haley, looking anxious.

"We've never had high profile speakers from such a big organization come to talk to us for any assemblies," explained Elijah.

"Then why..." started Jae.

"Exactly!" Haley interrupted, excited that we finally began to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Why would the FBI agents choose to be special speakers for a school assembly to begin with? And why would they choose our school out of all the ones in this state? And why did they suddenly decide that this year would be the year for them to join the assemblies as special speakers? Don't you think this would be too much of a coincidence compared to what's been happening to us lately?" finished Haley.

At the same time, Jae and I gave out a sigh as he seemed to have figured out what was going on. All of Haley and Elijah's explanation and questions made perfect sense. We've usually never even had guest speakers at assemblies. But all of a sudden, we had high profile speakers coming from a big organization to our school as guest speakers. This definitely couldn't be a coincidence.

"This is them. This is their doing," said Jae. Haley and Elijah both nodded.

"The scientists and Erasers, they're behind this," I said. All of us stayed absolutely silent for a few moments. We were still a bit shocked from the trouble that we had to face so soon.

"Now the question is, how could they have possibly controlled the FBI to come 'teach' us," proposed Elijah.

"The scientists probably didn't inform the FBI agents about us as their experiments, because if they did, then they would have gotten arrested for experimenting on young adults." stated Haley. Then she continued;

"So maybe, they could have convinced them we were criminals or something," suggested Haley, trying to give as much suggestions as she could come up with.

"I don't know what to say. The FBI being under the scientists control? I don't know. But then again, we proved that nothing is impossible," I said, just as confused as everyone else.

"Um. We forgot the one most possible explanation to how the scientists got control over the FBI," said Jae.

"What?" asked Elijah with a serious tone.

Then Jae looked up and began; "You and Haley said that there's no way that the FBI agents would attack us even after knowing of what the scientists have done to us, right?" said Jae.

"No, I don't think they will without an actual explanation. But even if they did try, I think we can escape from FBI agents," replied Elijah.

I also believed that we could escape from FBI agents, who were just normal humans.

Then I could suddenly see what Jae was trying to say, and where he was going with this conversation. I gasped, "Oh my god, no..." Haley and Elijah still looked confused and anxious.

"We can't escape them easily if the FBI agents are the Erasers," finalized Jae, with a serious tone and expression.

Jae was right.

We could fight and win against normal FBI agents,

The scientists weren't stupid enough to use normal FBI agents against us.

They would use something that could actually hurt us.

And the last time I checked, Erasers could.

The Erasers were going to come as the FBI agents.

Oh My God.


	15. Chapter 15

Jae was right.

We could fight and win against normal FBI agents,

The scientists weren't stupid enough to use normal FBI agents against us.

They would use something that could actually hurt us.

And the last time I checked, Erasers could.

The Erasers were going to come as the FBI agents.

Oh My God.

 **Chapter 15**

The atmosphere felt heavy. We stayed absolutely silent. Terrified of what was to come.

We weren't sure for certain, but there was a high possibility that it could be.

If the Erasers indeed came as FBI agents, then we would have to protect the entire school and everyone in it while making sure no one notices of our wings. The chance of this going smoothly was not in our favor. Because at this point, even if we say that it's hypothetical and only a possibility, we all knew that this was what was to come.

"We have to meet up tonight and tomorrow night," I stated, calmly, breaking the silence.

"For what?" asked Haley, confused.

"For a crash course on how to fight against Erasers," said Jae.

"Wait, do we have to kill them?" asked Haley.

"It's either we do or they'll kill us," said Elijah, calmly. Which definitely scared Haley, because she made a frightened face.

After our plan to meet up every night, starting today, was made, we decided to go back inside the school and try to spend the rest of today as normal as possible without thinking too much about the assembly to come.

Eventually, the school ended for the day. The day passed quickly as I spent my hours working on homework and assignments until the night came. As I always have, I waited for my mom and sister to fall asleep, which was around 10:00pm latest, and then left the house quietly. It was dark. I met up with Haley, Elijah, and Jae at the school field. First, we flew around to see how fast we could go. Haley still seemed a bit stunned by the fact she could fly, which was totally understandable. Then, we got on the school field and gave Haley a quick demonstration on how to injure or kill an Eraser. She seemed horrified and frightened at first, but when we explained the determination of the Erasers on their desire to hurt or kill us, she understood it was absolutely necessary. To prepare for reality, we took turns and practiced fighting against another. We practiced for hours and repeated the routine the next day. On the second day, after we finished practicing, we decided to go for a last flight to refresh ourselves before what was to come at the assembly tomorrow. As we were flying through the air, I could feel the wind flowing through me. It felt light, yet so heavy. Then eventually, we stopped flying and just stared at the moon. Appreciating the peace and quiet before we had to enter another fight the next day. I hadn't realize before how bright the moon truly was in the night sky.

"It's so quiet," said Haley.

"What do you think will happen?" asked Haley, calmly.

"I don't know... But it won't be good," answered Elijah, looking worried.

"What if we can't go back to our old lives? Having to live like this forever. What if we had to leave here and our lives, and never be able to come back?" asked Jae. I wasn't sure if this was another one of his sarcasms or if he was being serious.

"Don't. That's not funny," I said, looking upset and sad as I faced Jae.

"I wasn't trying to be," replied Jae with a serious tone and expression.

We eventually landed on the ground and walked to our homes.

When I reached home, I immediately went to bed. Trying to sleep and get some rest for tomorrow. But it was impossible as all I could think about was what was to come tomorrow, and I knew that Elijah, Haley, and Jae were all probably feeling the same.

 **N** ext morning, I woke up with very little sleep and left for school. When I arrived at the school and walked down the hallways, I definitely noticed today was different. The school definitely felt more occupied. The students and staffs who were organizing the assembly seemed to have a lot on their plates before classes started. Trying to act calm, I walked straight to my first class. The schedule for today was written on the chalkboard, and I noticed that all the classes have been cut short to fit in the assembly. Classes then soon began. Mrs. Banes began the class by handing out small pamphlets with information regarding all types of bullying; including cyber bullying. The pamphlet also included what was called the "Pledge poetry" that needed to be read out by all the students at the end of today's assembly. The first two classes went by quickly as my anxiety of what was to come during the assembly grew drastically. At the end of my second class, an announcement was made by the school calling down all the students to head to the auditorium for the Pledge assembly. I wouldn't exactly say I headed _down_ though, because my class, along with other 3rd floor classes, were instructed to head to the balcony section of the auditorium. Arizona high had a reasonably big auditorium divided into 2 floors: the main floor being on the 2nd floor, and the balcony on the 3rd floor. Soon, everyone placed themselves in their seats, and waited quietly for the assembly to begin. As I set down, I could see a few FBI agents entering the stage, and just as I had predicted they didn't seem like normal humans; they were huge.

I carefully observed the stage and the few FBI agents on the stage for any signs of suspicion, but found none yet. The assembly then began. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary yet. The speaker began to speak, but I paid no attention to it whatsoever. Before I knew it, everyone in the auditorium were standing up and reading the pledge poem out loud, so I stood up as well.

I continued to carefully observe the FBI agents until I noticed something. I noticed a set of eyes staring at me. The set of eyes that glared at me belonged to a FBI agent. The only reason why I noticed his eyes glaring at me was because all the other FBI agents had their sunglasses on. The man pushed down his sunglasses from his face and glared at me. He was tall, big, and had hazel brown hair like mine. Slowly, his emotionless face turned into a smirk. It was as if he was smirking right at me. I felt intimidated and had chills all over my body. I've never had such an encounter with an Eraser who did that. He soon gave me a bigger smirk as if he noticed my frightened expression. After that, he turned and left the auditorium through the back of the stage.

I knew what I had to do. He was obviously giving me a sign to follow him. I wasn't sure if it was a trap, but I couldn't just stay here and not figure it out. Immediately, I texted Haley, Elijah, and Jae to meet up outside the auditorium. With that, I got up from my seat and slowly excused myself from the auditorium. I waited for the others on the third floor auditorium entrance to the balcony. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long with Haley, Elijah, and Jae who soon joined me at the door. The moment we gathered, questions immediately surfaced.

"How do you know for sure if they are Erasers?" asked Elijah.

"One of them looked right at me and gave me a smirk," I said. None of them responded as if they expected more.

"One of them smiled at you..." said Jae.

"That's it?" asked Haley, confused.

"Yes. That's it," I responded.

"That's a reasonable explanation," remarked Jae, sarcastically.

"They were all wearing sunglasses. But all of a sudden, one of them took his off, glared at me, gave me a smirk, and then left the room as if he wanted me to follow him. Doesn't that sound like what the _scientist_ would have done?" I questioned, trying to justify my suspicions.

"She does have a point," said Elijah.

"So what do we do now?" asked Haley.

"Now we play hide and seek," answered Jae. "All we have to do is find where that FBI agent is hiding."

"We just have to think like him. Where would be a good spot for the scientists to _educate_ us?" stated Elijah.

"Up," answered everyone, at the same time.

We knew where we had to go. We had to go to a place where we could have the advantage of flying; we needed open space. However, we also had to go to a place where the people from our school wouldn't be able to witness nor figure us out. We needed to go up. There was only one place that we could go. The roof. The roof of the school building.

The roof top was the 5th floor of the school. Arizona high had 4 floors inside. All four floors were filled with classrooms and offices. To get to the roof, there was a stairway going upward from the fourth floor to a locked door to the roof top. Usually, the roof of the school could only be reached by custodians who had the keys. However, I'm sure we could figure something out when we get there. Trying not to make much commotions, Jae, Haley, Elijah, and I began our way to a stairway that would lead us to the third floor to the fourth floor _until_ we were stopped.

All of a sudden, from one of the classes on the floor, a man came forth. Elijah, Haley, and Jae had no idea who he was, but I did. He was the FBI agent that made eye contact with me in the auditorium earlier. As I had noticed before, he was wearing a black suit, had a pair of black sunglasses with him, was around the same height as Jae and Elijah, and had brown hair. He stood before us as if he was waiting for that moment. However, now that I had a closer look at him, he didn't seem that much older than us; maybe a few years older than us.

"I always wondered what you would be like," said the guy in a suit, while glaring over at us as if he was observing us.

Startled, we stopped immediately. I could hear my own heart pounding fast. He was only standing a few feet away from us. I didn't know what would come, but I should be on my guard.

"Are you one of them?" I asked, without hesitation.

"Them?" asked the man.

"The scientists," I responded.

"Oh no. I would never compare myself to those cowards," he responded, sounding irritated by what I had said. I didn't even know him, yet surprisingly, I was more calm after he had reassured he wasn't a scientist.

"Then who are you?" I asked, impatiently.

"I'm Alex," the man responded.

"What do you want from us?" asked Elijah.

"Nothing from any of you. Except her," responded the man who called himself Alex, then looked straight at me.

"Me?" I responded, with a confused expression and tone. "What do you want from me?" I continued.

"My whole life was being your shadow. Let me just say, you basically ruined my life," he responded, with no expression whatsoever.

However, before I could question any farther, we heard loud footsteps. It wasn't that loud, but our hearings were practically supernatural so it was pretty clear for us to hear.

"Did I forget to mention that I came here to kill you?" stated Alex, then smirked at all of us.

"Go on! I'll give you a head start," continued Alex, sounding relaxed as if he was playing a game that he knew he would win.

The footsteps seemed to be coming from the stairs that were located on the far left side of the building. Assuming, they were coming from the Erasers sent from the second floor to chase us, we decided to get away as far and fast as we could. Therefore, we decided to head to the stairs on the far right side of the building, located on the opposite side of the stairs that the Erasers were using. We all knew they were coming to find us. It was only a matter of time.

Before I had realized, Alex was nowhere to be found anymore. He was no longer where he was standing like a few minutes ago. There was no trace of him left. But that didn't matter anyway, because we had to move.

Trying to focus on keeping a distance between us and the Erasers, I knew we had to reach the roof as fast as we could. If the Erasers did catch us before we reach the roof, the whole school could find out about us.

 **H** aley, Elijah, Jae, and I ran to the stairs that would lead us to the fourth floor. I could still hear the Erasers' footsteps getting louder and getting closer to us. We ran up to the fourth floor, and that was when all of it stopped.

 **T** he moment Elijah, Haley, Jae, and I entered the fourth floor, we could no longer hear the Erasers and their footsteps. We could hear absolutely nothing. The floor was completely silent. Something was wrong. There was definitely something going on. Looking confused, we stopped.

"Am I going deaf or do you guys hear nothing?" questioned Jae.

"No. Definitely not just you," responded Haley.

"They were so close by," said Elijah.

Still confused, I said nothing.

"Maybe they needed a break?" said Haley, trying hard to figure out the reason.

"Oh yeah. They probably went to get some sandwiches and cookies," responded Jae. Haley immediately gave him a judgy look, and Jae gave her a grin in response.

I could faintly hear Haley and Jae still arguing over something, but I paid no attention to it as I focused on trying to hear anything that could give us clues to where the Erasers were.

"Maybe they knew," said Elijah, quietly. That's when everyone's attention turned to Elijah.

"What?" I asked.

"Maybe they knew all along that we were trying to go to the roof. Maybe they had this planned out all along. To get us to the roof," said Elijah, a bit louder.

"What do you mean?" asked Haley, looking a bit confused like the rest of us.

"Where we would go to is not a mystery. It's not hard to predict that we would be heading to the roof," answered Elijah.

"You're saying they weren't trying to stop us," I said. Elijah nodded back.

"They weren't trying to stop us. They were trying to rush us to get to the roof," finalized Jae.

However, we were still left with no choice, but to go to the roof top. We didn't know if it was a trap or a plan they had set for us, but we couldn't go anywhere else.

 **T** he stairway to the rooftop was still a few hallways down from where we were standing. Meaning, there were still plenty of opportunities for the Erasers to attack us. Carefully, we began walking down the hallways. I was leading the way with Jae, Haley, and Elijah following right behind me. We walked past a number of classrooms on the floor, and looked through each of them carefully through the classroom doors to see if there was anyone suspicious. Still, we saw nor heard any Erasers.

We turned left at the first corner that we reached, then walked carefully to the next corner and turned right, and then stopped. To be accurate, I stopped suddenly without any warning. I could feel someone bump into my back. It was Jae.

I stopped as I noticed a woman standing before my eyes. She was only a few feet away from me. I couldn't see her face. She was looking away as she was staring out the window on the left side of the hallway which showed the view of the schoolyard. From what I could see, she was tall and had dirty blonde hair. She wasn't dressed like a FBI agent, a scientist, nor an Eraser. It was hard to figure her out. She still hasn't turned around as if she has yet found out we were there. Maybe she was just pretending, but I wasn't sure.

"What's wrong?" asked Jae, whispering at my ears with a worried tone.

Without answering, I pointed at the woman before my eyes to direct Jae, Elijah, and Haley to the reason why I stopped.

"She doesn't look like an Eraser," stated Haley.

"Never know. She might look like that for a second, then turn into a giant Eraser in another," said Jae, trying to scare Haley.

"Can we focus please," I stated, a bit annoyed from this whole situation. I continued to stare at her. I didn't know why, but I just kept looking. She seemed so familiar, yet I've never met her in my life.

"Maybe we should try another way?" suggested Elijah.

"Okay then, follow me," said Jae, looking to go to another way.

Without responding, I just nodded. And for the last time, I took a look at the woman again. Then without thinking, I grabbed Jae's arm.

"Sherra," called Elijah, trying to get my attention.

"We have to go this way," I demanded.

"I thought we were going the other way," said Haley, confused.

"What's wrong?" asked Jae, looking just as confused as Haley and Elijah did.

"I don't know. I just feel like we have to go this way. It's an instinct," I said, with a serious expression and tone. Haley and Elijah exchanged a look as Jae tried to figure out why I was saying this.

"Sherra, this isn't the safest way. We don't know what she is," explained Elijah. Haley nodded in agreement. I said nothing.

"This is the fastest way. I'm sure four of us can take down one person," suggested Jae. Haley let out a quiet sigh and Elijah looked at Jae, who seemed determined to take my side. I gave Jae a small smile, and he smiled back at me.

"Hope you know what you're doing though," said Jae, looking at me.

"I wouldn't count on it. We don't have to talk to her. We just have to go this way," I said.

With my words said, we slowly began to jog down the hallway, but not making a contact with the woman. Jae was leading the way with Haley, Elijah, and me following behind him.

The woman continued to stare out the window as we moved past her, as if she didn't know we were there at all. Jae moved past her. Haley moved past her. Elijah moved past her. Finally, I was close to walking past her. Then all of a sudden, the woman turned and our eyes met.

She turned at the exact moment I moved past her. It was as if she had been waiting for me.

The moment our eyes met, I felt myself slow down. I wasn't sure if I had physically stopped or just my mind slowing down. I couldn't tell.

The moment our eyes met, images and sceneries rushed into my head and mind.

I couldn't figure it out at first, but I could now feel that it was a vision.

It was as though she was showing me a vision.

I was in a vision.


	16. Chapter 16

The moment our eyes met, I felt myself slow down. I wasn't sure if I had physically stopped or just my mind slowing down. I couldn't tell.

The moment our eyes met, images and sceneries rushed into my head and mind.

I couldn't figure it out at first, but I could now feel that it was a vision.

It was as though she was showing me a vision.

That was when I realized I lost myself.

Lost myself in a vision.

 **Chapter 16**

 **W** hen I opened my eyes, I saw no one around me.

I looked around in every direction to observe my surroundings, but there was no one to be seen. Haley, Elijah, and Jae, who were just walking in front of me, were no longer there, or anywhere. The woman standing before me weren't there either. No one was here except me. I thought of trying to call for someone, but immediately realized it was going to be of no use as I knew I was here completely alone. I didn't know where I was, but I knew panicking wasn't going to help.

What I did realize was that I was standing on a field of green grass. The sky was bright blue and the sun felt warm to my skin. There was a bit of wind, but not to the extent that made me feel cold. It was quiet. It felt peaceful.

Eventually, I came to realize that I wasn't just standing on a plain grass field. Just over to my left was an upward hill with a large tree at the top. On the other hand, to my right, was a plain field of grass with a few houses at the end of the field. From what I could see, everything seemed normal until I noticed the cars. The houses seemed to be quit same as the ones that I used to see and living in Arizona, but the cars that were parked outside the houses didn't seem that modern. I'm not talking about like just old looking cars. These cars seemed to be from like a century ago or so, but I didn't pay much more attention than that.

I knew where I had to go. I knew that I had to upwards. Go higher, where I might be able to see anything unusual. So I began walking up the hills to my left.

As I almost reached the top of the hill, where the giant tree was located, I noticed a shadow flying over me. The shadow moved quickly, so I wasn't sure what or who it was but I decided to stay on guard.

When I finally reached the top, I first noticed the giant tree standing tall over me. I then noticed a tombstone placed under the tree, and a person standing in front of it. It was a girl. She was around my height. She had reasonably long brunette hair around my length and had white shirt with a pair of blue jeans on. She stared down at the tombstone standing in front of her, faced away from me. However, before I could move closer to identify her face, she spoke words that made me stop myself;

"Hi. I know I haven't been here for a while... I just couldn't bring myself to come see you after everything.. Because coming here reminds me of everything that's happened. But today, I came here to ask for your forgiveness," said the girl, staring down at the tombstone.

"I'm still mad at you for what you did. I know you did it to save me and everyone else, but I still can't forgive you for leaving me behind in a world without you," the girl continued, sounding wounded. As her voice began cracking, her voice gradually progressed from anger to sorrow.

"I know that you think I don't need your forgiveness and that I should move on with my life, but you probably also know that I'm not capable of doing that anymore," the girl continued.

"That's why I made a decision today. Probably the most selfish, terrible decision I've ever made in my life," said the girl, sounding determined.

"To be honest, I don't know what I was thinking. No one might ever forgive me for making this choice today. I might be doing the worst thing for everyone... And I don't know what's going to happen... But I do know that this decision is going to give me a second chance with you and a second chance to make things right," the girl stated, sounding anxious, desperate, and eager.

"Our lives were filled with endless pain and suffering. But if I could get a second chance with you, I'm willing to go through all of it again. Maybe, even you might not forgive me for this, so I am sorry that I chose this. But this time, I promise to make things right. I do," the girl finished. Then she opened her wings, which I just came to realize she had, and touched the tombstone for the last time.

"I love you Jae," she finished, then flew off.

The moment the girl's finial words and Jae's name, I became more confused and lost. I watched her as she flew up and disappeared into the air, above the clouds. However, I couldn't see her face even 'till then.

I then focused my attention to the tombstone that the girl was staring and talking to this whole time. I immediately looked for the name of the tombstone and who it belonged to. My eyes widened.

The tombstone read _Jae Degrey_.

It was Jae's name on the tombstone.

I was confused and filled with fear. _What was this vision? Jae is going to die? Who was that girl and what did she decide? And how this has anything to do with me?_

However, before I could think harder about this vision and about the tombstone with Jae's name on it, I felt something pulling me.

All my surroundings and scenery around me began to fade away.

I was being pulled out of this vision.

Then, soon, everything around me became dark for a second, and then bright in another.

When I finally opened my eyes again, I could see Jae, Haley, and Elijah in front of me, running.

Without guessing, I knew where I was.

I was back to reality.


	17. Chapter 17

All my surroundings and sceneries began to fade away.

I felt myself being pulled out of the vision that I was in.

Soon, everything around me became dark for a brief moment, and then bright in another.

I couldn't open my eyes at first, but I tried.

When I finally did open my eyes again, I could see Jae, Haley, and Elijah in front of me, running.

Without having to guess, I knew where I was.

I was back to reality.

 **Chapter 17**

Before I realized, I was back to reality.

I was still trailing behind Haley, Jae, and Elijah who were running past the woman in the hallway to get to the stairs on the opposite side of the hall.

I slowed down, then looked behind me to only noticed that it has only been a few minutes since I began to see the vision. My vision felt as though it was at least half an hour, but it wasn't in reality. I also noticed that the woman who was standing in the hall was no longer there; she had vanished. I couldn't even get an opportunity to question her on whether or not she planted the vision in me.

To the sound of Jae calling my name, I immediately turned back around.

"They're coming," said Haley, alarmingly.

I then realized the loud steps that had disappeared earlier had returned, and it was getting louder and closer towards us. Without hesitation, we quickly continued up the stairs, heading towards the rooftop. Whatever that was going to happen, we knew we had to take it outside. It was the only way to keep everyone in the school safe. From the quietness that roamed around the school, I knew the Pledge Assembly was still continuing on.

Trouble never seemed to leave us alone. Once we reached the door that would led us to the stairs to the rooftop, we noticed a slight problem. The door was locked. The custodians kept it locked to keep the students from entering. The door was locked and the loud footsteps that haunted us were getting closer. We were running out of time.

"We have to break it open," said Elijah.

"You ladies step back and let us gentlemen take care of this for you," said Jae, while giving Haley and I a small smirk. I could see Haley rolling her eyes. Jae and Elijah began to hit their bodies against the wide door to break them down. It wasn't working so well with the doors being built so well. Haley and I noticed the loud steps getting even closer.

"We have to hurry," rushed Haley, sounding anxious. I could see her gripping her fists tight. I had forgotten this is technically her first official head on fight with the Erasers.

"What does it look like we're doing?" sarcastically commented Jae, looking as frustrated as all of us were.

When a few minutes past, I could see the doorknob and the hinges looking loose. The door was slowly breaking apart. Then suddenly, I heard very, very familiar footsteps and voices very close by. We all had enhanced hearings, but they were still close by. Haley and I immediately looked across the hallway and saw Erasers standing there, looking back at us. I could feel my heart speeding up. Once again, I felt the horror of what was soon to come. The moment the Erasers' and our eyes met, they began to run towards us.

"Hurry," yelled Haley in horror.

"We're almost done," said Elijah, realizing what was coming.

"We're not ready," said Haley.

"We never were," replied Jae.

I then heard a loud boom from the doors being knocked down.

Jae, Haley, Elijah, and I all quickly rushed through the door, and up the stairs that would lead us to the top; which was the rooftop outside. I could see the sky as I ran up the stairs. We didn't even look back. We couldn't. We just ran forward and upward until we were forced to stop as we heard a loud scream coming from behind me.

"Ahhh!" screamed Haley, which made me look back right away. I noticed Jae stopped himself as well.

It was Haley and Elijah. She and Elijah were standing a few steps behind Jae and I. They were caught by a number of Erasers who were chasing us, and were forced to the ground on their knees by them. I feared for their life. The Erasers could easily end them in a quick snap if we made a wrong move.

Haley looked terrified. Elijah seemed more frustrated than terrified. I could see they were trying to escape the Erasers, but were unable to do so with the Erasers enabling them from making any kind of movement. I gave both of them a worried look. I then exchanged a look with Jae. He looked just as frustrated as I did. We were both trying to think of a way to free Haley and Elijah.

However, before neither Jae or I could come up with a plan, a female and a male scientist stepped forward from where they were hiding, which was behind the Erasers. They looked at us with amazement, as if we were some kind of a new discovery. The male scientist was carrying black briefcase. The two scientists gave me and Jae a smirk. I felt angry from being caught and disgusted from their expressions.

Without saying another word, the male scientist held up the briefcase up with his one arm and opened it with the other. He seemed thrilled and almost excited, which wasn't a good sign for the flock. He carefully presented the content of the briefcase to the female scientist as if he was trying to prove everything was going accordingly. The female scientist smiled as she scanned the content of the briefcase, then turned to Jae and I.

"Do you wonder what's in this briefcase?" asked the female scientist.

I didn't bother to reply, but gave her an angry glare.

She then reached into the briefcase and took out a normal size syringe filled with a blue-colored substance in it. It looked like the syringe needle you would see at a clinic or a hospital, but with a mysterious blue-colored substance in it. I noticed it had Haley's name written on the syringe, so it wasn't hard to guess who it was for.

"This is a new experiment that we are conducting," the female scientist stated proudly.

"Why does it Haley's name on it?" I asked impatiently. Haley immediately turned around to take a look at the syringe herself, and noticed it had her name on it. She seemed confused and scared.

"An excellent question. The answer is because this substance was specifically made for Haley. This specific new _development_ was only made for Haley and only for her to adjust. Of course, each of you have one," she answered.

She turned to the male scientist beside her and gave him a nod. With the sign, the male scientist took out another syringe from the suit case that had Elijah's name on it. Then, without hesitation, the two scientists took off the plastic caps that kept the needles at the end of each syringe protected. Without doubt, I knew what was soon going to happen.

"Stop!" I yelled. Everyone paused and turned to my direction. "Don't hurt anyone," I said carefully.

"Or what? You're going to kill me? I don't think any of you understand. You cannot protect anyone before you have the strength to protect yourselves in this world," said the scientist with a sassy tone.

Once she finished her statement, she immediately injected the needle into Haley's shoulder and injected the blue-colored substance into her. Haley quickly lost her strength and fell to the ground, unconscious.

"No!" yelled Elijah, who struggled to get up until he lost consciousness when the male scientist injected him with his needle filled with the blue-colored substance. I gasped in shock as everything was happening too quickly.

With inexpressible anger, I took a step forward thinking of attempting an attack on scientists and the Erasers, but Jae prevented me from doing so by grabbing my arm. I could feel that he was just as angry by the way how hard he was grabbing my wrist. But he knew we probably shouldn't as the Erasers still had control over Haley and Elijah's lives. I noticed the scientists were at their happiest with their expressions filled with satisfaction, which was another reason why I wanted to hurt them.

I just stared at the scientists with anger until I suddenly heard a heavy breath coming from behind me. Jae and I immediately turned around and saw more than a dozen Erasers standing at the top of the stairs; on the rooftop. One familiar man walked a few steps down the stairs, closer to me and Jae. It was the man who called himself Alex. However, before I could say anything, Alex grabbed me and flew up into the sky. Jae tried to stop Alex, but was interrupted by the Erasers who began to attack him.

I felt myself being dragged up into the sky. I definitely noticed that Alex did not look like a typical Eraser, yet seemed stronger than an average Eraser. Alex's eyes met mine as I opened my own wings, preparing to balance myself in the air and fight.

"I waited for this my entire life. To end you," said Alex with an excited expression.

"Have we met?" I asked. He did not reply. So I twisted his hand to make him let go of me. He yelped in pain.

Alex then threw a fast punch at me, which I could not dodge on time as I underestimated his speed. I could feel my left arm throbbing from the pain. I then gave myself a push up in the air, forcing me upward, and kicked his shoulder with my knee. He was stronger, but he was slower than I was. Without giving him a chance to rebalance, I instantly dived to his back and attempted to injure fraction of his wings by breaking one of its bones. The attempt was not perfectly successful, but successful enough to make him fall downwards from the sky. However, he didn't go down alone as he grabbed my ankle tightly as he fell. I was unable to escape and was thrown onto the ground when he fell into the ground. My head hurt. I felt dizzy, but picked myself up from the floor. I noticed I was now on the rooftop. 'Well, at least now I felt safe about everyone inside the school' I thought to myself. I could see Alex picking himself off the floor as well. He was definitely going to continue to fight, judging from his annoyed expression. However, he was stopped by a scientist. A scientist that I was most familiar with. The scientist who began everything; my dream, my wings, and all the changes in my life now. I was wondering why he hasn't shown up yet. However, this time, he was there as himself. I couldn't recognize him right away with his actually appearance, as he normally 'till now hid himself behind Erasers or in darkness. However, I recognized his voice immediately. It was hard to forget anyway. He was wearing a pair of glasses. His skin was a slightly tanned and he had dark brown eyes. He seemed less evil than I had imagined, but still really damaged judging from his resting expression.

"Alex. Enough," said the scientist. Alex ignored him as he continued to growl at me.

"Don't cross me son. It won't end well for you," continued the scientist. With an annoyed expression, Alex backed down.

Then, three Erasers came out of nowhere and grabbed me to force me down. I couldn't even get a chance to fight back. I tried to move, but it was useless. They had me completely tied to the ground. I saw unconscious Haley and Elijah being dragged onto the rooftop by the Erasers. The male and the female scientist who injected Haley and Elijah had already joined the scientist that I hated the most, along with the rest of living Erasers standing behind them. I could also see Jae just a few feet away from me. There were a few dead Erasers that Jae probably killed, and a few alive holding him down. Jae's eyes met mine and he gave me a smile of relief to see me alive.

"Playing fair as usual?" stated Jae, sarcastically.

"Son, this is me showing mercy," replied the scientist as he eyed at the female scientist. The female scientist soon took out another syringe needle from the briefcase and quickly injected Jae with it. I could see Jae also slowly losing consciousness as Haley and Elijah has.

"Jae," I called as he closed his eyes.

I knew it was now going to be my turn.

"Just get it over with," I told the scientists.

"Dear, I'm only doing what's best for you," the scientist replied. However, this time, it wasn't the female scientist holding the syringe. It was Alex. He walked towards me and whispered into my ears;

"You always seem to take everything from me," said Alex, then injected me with the syringe needle.

...

"Sherra!" I heard someone calling my name.

I could hear my name being called repeatedly. I just couldn't seem to wake myself.

Once I could finally feel myself being able to open my eyes, I saw a clear dark grey sky above me as though it was going to rain soon.

"Sherra," someone called again and I realized it was Haley.

That was when I began to remember what had happened. The school assembly, the scientists, the Erasers, the escape to the rooftop, the vision, and the injection. My eyes immediately widened.

I could see Haley leaning over me with Jae and Elijah standing around me and Haley.

"Can you hear me?" asked Haley, with a worried expression. I slow gave him a small nod. Jae and Elijah also looked over to check if I was okay.

"We were worried," said Haley.

"We all woke up one by one in the order that we got injected, but you took longer than any of us did," explained Elijah.

"You won't have any strength for about 5 minutes. It's seems to be the effect of the injection," continued Haley. I gave all of them a nod to show that I understood them.

Haley then pointed her finger to direct my attention to the group of Erasers standing across from us. The Erasers showed no movement. However, it explained why Jae, Haley, and Elijah seemed so on guard. The scientist who showed no desire to communicate whatsoever 'till now, according to Haley, began to whisper at one another. It was as though they were waiting for all of us to wake.

"We've almost reached our goals for the day. Of course we can't see the results today, but we will witness it soon enough," said the scientist. "Now we can go!" he said happily.

"Dr. Dexter," called the female scientist looking at the evil scientist. She then whispered into one of his ears, which made him react almost instantly. Well, at least now I knew the name of the scientist who has been the beginning of the changes in my life: Dr. Dexter.

"Oh. Yes! I almost forgot. We brought a few more gifts for all of you," said Dr. Dexter in excitement.

"Well, you're full of surprises today," remarked Jae, looking annoyed.

"Since it's taking all of you so long to figure out the rest of your flock members, we decided to do you a favor," Dr. Dexter continued with a annoyingly creepy smirk. His words definitely caught all of our attentions. "But before that! We are going to make a deal," Dr. Dexter stated, excitedly.

"By end of today, all of you are going to leave your homes. Don't tell your families where you're going nor why. You won't need to. If you do not keep the end of this deal, everyone in this school and the last two flock members that we have collected for you are going to die," continued Dr. Dexter. Although, this time, he wasn't giving off a smirk.

"You're bluffing," I said.

The female scientist took a step forward, "Since the beginning of today's assembly and while you were unconscious, we have been planting bombs around and inside the school," she calmly stated without hesitation.

"At the flick of a switch. Everything will be gone as if it never existed," said Dr. Dexter as he smirked.

"Prove it," demanded Elijah.

The moment Elijah demanded for proof, Dr. Dexter, making an annoyed expression, snapped his fingers; causing the female scientist beside him to press a button on a little device she was carrying. All we could heard was a loud boom. Then we could see a small portion of the school parking lot, where thankfully no one has parked, explode. We all flinched a bit to the sound of the sudden explosion.

"You had to ask," said Jae, eyeing at Elijah. I could still see Haley's jaw hanging low in shock.

"Well, the man's not bluffing. Good job pal," continued Jae, giving Elijah a pat on the back. I could see Dr. Dexter smiling with satisfaction. The more I looked at the guy, the angrier I became.

"You want us to leave our homes and the city that we grew up in completely behind today or you'll kill everyone. I thought you wanted to make a deal," I stated, while being filled frustration.

"We give you the last two flock members and promise to keep everyone in the school alive in exchange for all the flock members to leave this place. It's a fair deal," finished Dr. Dexter.

"How is that a deal exactly? Isn't that a threat?" questioned Elijah, sounding seriously confused and frustrated.

"You're all stalling. Make the deal or everyone inside dies today," demanded Dr. Dexter.

We all hesitated. Not because we didn't know what our answer was going to be, but because we all wanted to think of a way to save everyone and still stay with our friends and families.

"I know you'll make the right choice Sherra," said Dr. Dexter as he looked at me. He definitely knew how to get on my nerves.

I looked at Haley, Jae, and then Elijah. As much as we didn't want to leave, we knew what we had to say.

"Okay! We'll keep the deal, but only if you keep yours," I demanded.

"Always," replied Dr. Dexter. Then he and the other two scientist exchanged a few words, and continued ; "Then, we will be going," said Dr. Dexter.

"Wait! Uninstall the explosives first!" I demanded.

"Oh sweetie. We're keeping those until all of you leave," said Dr. Dexter, unpleasantly.

"How do we know you'll keep your end of the bargain?" questioned Haley.

"It's not me you have to worry about. I will if all of you do," replied Dr. Dexter.

"Where do you even expect us to go?" I questioned.

"It's up to you sweetie. Run away so we can't catch you or follow us and get caught if you want answers. But I do have to warn you, our next encounters won't be pretty," finished Dr. Dexter as he walked away along with the other scientists and exited the rooftop down the stairs. The Erasers blocked our view, which prevented us from questioning any further.

I could see Alex glaring over at me. His expression filled with excitement for our next encounter. Then a few Erasers behind him dragged out two people out of nowhere and threw them at our feet. Haley and Elijah immediately ran to the people on the floor. I was about to do the same to identify the people before me. However, before I could do so, I got distracted as Alex said his final words before we parted 'till our next encounter.

"I'll see you soon," said Alex, with a grin, as he walked away with the other Erasers.

"Oh my god," said Haley. Which made me totally focus my attention on her.

Then I gasped. Elijah and Jae were also there speechless.

You think by now I have adapted to surprises, but no. Even if I suspected it slightly, I still get shocked. Everyone was exhausted and worried for the future, but at least we have found the last members of the flock.

Maya and Luke.


	18. Chapter 18

I gasped. Elijah and Jae also stood there speechless.

You'd think by now I have adapted to surprises, but no. Even if I suspected it slightly, I still get shocked, and this shocked me.

Everyone was exhausted and worried about the future, but at least we've found the last members of the flock.

Maya and Luke.

 **Chapter 18**

We all stood there looking restless. We were waiting for a resolution, while waiting also for Maya and Luke to wake. I couldn't tell whether the school assembly has ended yet or not, but none of that mattered, because we wouldn't even be able to attend this school anymore anyway. Million questions swam through my head as I kept replaying what Dr. Dexter had said to the flock earlier. 'Where do we go? Where can we go? How were we going to explain this to our parents and the school?' I asked myself repeatedly. I assumed the others were thinking of that also as they looked extremely occupied with their thoughts as well.

My thoughts were eventually interrupted by the sound of Maya and Luke awakening. Knelt down to their aid was Haley.

"Hey," said Haley. Maya and Luke stared back, speechless.

"Took a nice nap?" asked Jae, which made Maya and Luke even more confused.

"What... What happened?" asked Luke.

"You're awake from a magical nap," joked Jae, which never helps any situation at all.

"Why are we here?" asked Maya. Jae, Haley, Elijah, and I all exchanged looks as these kind of questions and situation were kind of getting repetitive.

"We don't have much time. We'll explain as we move," reminded Elijah, which was clearly our cue to head home instead of remaining at the school.

Instead of taking the easier path of flying, we decided to walk since Maya and Luke hasn't had the chance to adapt to their new abilities yet. Haley helped Maya get up on her feet, and Jae gave Luke a hand. All of us slowly started our way down the stairs from the higher floors to the first floor of the school to reach the exit door. As we continued our way to the direction of our homes, walking behind me, I could hear Haley explaining the whole story, once again, to Maya and Luke as Jae repeated interrupted her to fill in a few details she had missed.

"Where should we go?" I quietly asked Elijah who lightly tilted his head towards me.

"I don't know..." responded Elijah.

"Where can we go? We can't just leave everything behind and leave!" I said with anger in my voice towards Elijah.

"I know... We'll figure something out, eventually. We have to," responded Elijah, looking as worried and angry as I did.

"How? We have nowhere to go to," I reminded Elijah and myself. Elijah did not respond this time. He said nothing for awhile. When I tilted my head to face him, he had the face. The face that I could tell he was either thinking or getting reminded of something or an idea. He had figured something out.

"What is it?" I asked immediately.

"I might have an idea," responded Elijah, giving me a small smile. That was when he began to explain to me of his family cottage. According to Elijah, it was located in north of Oregon, which meant it was pretty far. He explained that it belonged to his grandparents, so his family used to take a huge family vacation every summer. However, once his grandparents passed away, they haven't been visiting as often and it's now mostly only visited by cleaners a few times a year. Elijah and I smoothly talked about how we could get there without exhausting ourselves, and shared it with the flock.

"A cottage?" questioned Jae as he raised one of his eyebrows in suspicion at Elijah.

"Whatever," Elijah whispered back at Jae.

"Is there a problem?" I asked, looking confused.

"Nothing," responded Elijah. Luke smirked at Elijah.

"Nothing but this rich boy here not admitting that he doesn't actually own a cottage," said Jae, giving a pat on Elijah's back.

"Fine. It's a bit like a villa," admitted Elijah.

"No. It's more like a mansion," finished Haley, as she lightly smiled.

"Ah. There we go," responded Jae.

"Wait. All of you've been?" asked Maya, seeming curious. No one responded but I could clearly see Luke trying to avoid eye-contact, Jae just nodding with a smirk on his face, Haley making an expression that clearly expressed the realization of her mistake by commenting in the first place, and Elijah looking a bit guilty.

"I haven't," I responded as I moved to link arms with Maya. She definitely seemed to feel a bit better to know she wasn't alone.

"Traitors," Maya quietly whispered, and I smiled as she said so.

As we reached the point where a few of us had to separate to enter our own neighborhood, we reminded ourselves where at what time we had to meet at.

"So remember we just leave them a letter with as little detail as possible," I reminded.

"If you think you need motivation, just remember that if they know too much, the mad scientists are going to kill them," said Jae.

"That's not funny," responded Haley.

"Just ignore him. That's what I do," told Maya.

"Mean," responded Jae, which Maya responded with a wide smile.

"Bring nothing but what you need. Leave everything else behind. Let's meet at the park down the street at midnight," I finished. Everyone responded with a nod, then we separated quickly. We knew we only had around 9 hours left with our family in our homes. We had no time to spare.

After unlocking the door, I entered my house. It was quiet. Which wasn't surprising because my sister, Lacie, wasn't back from school yet and neither was my mom from her work, giving me the perfect opportunity to pack my belongings and write a letter to leave behind. I immediately climbed the stairs and marched into my room. I took out the biggest backpack that I owned and began to fill it with necessary items only, such as my laptop, chargers, small notebook with a pen, wallet, clothes, and etc. It was hard to decide on what to bring since I didn't know when or if I would come back home. It took me around an hour and half to finish packing. I could tell my sister was home by the sound coming from the kitchen. When I finished packing, I took out a sheet of line paper and started writing. It turns out I needed a lot of pages since I kept messing up. When I had finally completed one full letter without messing up, I realized the content of the letter wouldn't even make any sense nor be reasonable for any parent to understand. The letter wrote :

 _"Dear Mom._

 _I know this is sudden and unreasonable for me to ask you to understand, but try to finish reading this without freaking out. I have to leave. I have to leave. I have to leave our house, you, and Lacie. I can't tell you the reason, but just know that it's not because I'm being kidnapped or that I hate my home and life, so I decided to runaway. I just have to leave. If I tell you my reason, I would put you and Lacie in danger that I can't protect you guys from. Trust me. I don't want to leave either, but I have to. Please don't report this to the police or get anyone else involved. It's going to be unnecessary. I know I'm giving you very little, and I know that that's not fair to you. So I'm sorry. I can't tell you when I'll be back, because I don't know whether or not I can come back ever. But I want you and Lacie to live happily. I'll be safe and fine so don't worry about me. Don't exhaust yourself from work. Eat healthy food. Go out more with your friends instead of spending all your time on work. Smile and laugh happily everyday with Lacie. I love you and Lacie so much. I just have to do what needs to be done. I promise I will come back one day. I love you. -Sherra- "_

Without realizing, I could feel tears trickling down my face. I hadn't realized or thought much of how much I would be losing and leaving behind. I didn't have the time to. But really, it only took me a letter to make me realize how much I really didn't want to do this. I really didn't want this. It was already 6pm. I didn't have much time. I knew that the least thing I could do was explain the situation to Lacie as she already knew of the flock's existence. I folded the letter in half, wiped the tears off my face, and called for my sister.

"What?" responded Lacie. Judging from the distance I could hear her voice from, she was somewhere downstairs, on the first floor.

"Can you come up for a sec?" I asked. I could hear her sigh, and then the sound of her walking up the stairs. When she reached my room, she peeked into my room.

"You can come in," I invited. With my invitation, she entered and sat on top of my bed.

"What's up?" she asked.

"I have to leave. Tonight," I stated.

"Wait. What?" Lacie responded, looking extremely confused.

"The scientists and the Erasers. They came to our school today during the assembly. They said we had to leave tonight or everyone at the school will die," I continued. By the expression on Lacie's face, I could tell I left her speechless.

"What do you mean they told you you have to leave? Where are you going?" questioned Lacie.

"I can't tell you. I shouldn't. It's for the best," I responded. Lacie didn't question much farther on where I was going as she understood the possible consequences.

"You still can't leave! You can't leave everything behind! Your family, home, and friends are all here!" she stated, looking as furious as I felt.

"I don't have a choice. They weren't kidding when they said they would kill everyone. Even if they were, I don't want to take any chances. I have to go," I finished. Lacie did not respond. She just looked at me, then at her hands, and repeated that for a few times. She was trying to digest what I had told her. It took her quite a while to fully digest it, but when she finally did, she continued:

"When?" she asked, sounding very upset. She wouldn't look at me nor make any eye contact. She was upset, but wasn't sure who to express it to.

"Tonight," I reminded her.

"You can't tell mom. Can you?" she questioned.

"I don't think that's a good idea," I responded.

"How is she even going to take this? What are you going to tell her?" Lacie continued with her questions. In response to her question, I lifted the letter that I had written for our mom and handed it to Lacie. Lacie, immediately, read the letter, but said nothing once finished. Then after another five minutes, to my surprise, she suddenly jumped out of my bed. I just looked up to her from the chair I was sitting in with a confused expression.

"Where are you.. What are you doing?" I asked her.

"I'm going to cook! Your favourite bacon alfredo spaghetti. Mom's not going to be back 'till 9:30 anyway. So we're going to have a nice meal together before you go," Lacie responded, and gave me a sad, yet gentle smile. I sighed in relief. I was so happy to hear that she understood my situation, and was thoughtful enough to make this easier for me. Then I smiled back at her.

Lacie and I talked a lot while we ate. By the time I had finished my dinner, it was 7:35pm. After dinner, I spent the rest of my day, at least until my mom came home from work, in my room thinking of my life here. The ups and downs, friends, school, and family. The moment I first entered high school seemed only to me like yesterday, but now it was time for me to leave. For a while, I just stared outside my window; appreciating what seemed like one of my final moments in peace and quiet. It made me realize that I never truly appreciated all the things I had in life until my darkest moments.

My peaceful moment, however, ended once I heard the sound of my front doors being shut as my mom returned home from work. I could hear her car keys being dropped off at the cabinet as she entered. It was now 9:43pm. I was getting nervous. This probably explained my extra sensitive hearing. My mom made up the stairs, first entered my sister's room to talk of how each of their day went, and then, she made it to my room to ask how my day went.

"Hey. How was your day?" asked my mom, enthusiastically, while looking a bit tired.

"It was okay. You know how school is," I replied, and then gave her a small smile.

"Okay, I'm at least glad to hear you didn't have a horrible day. Well, I'm going to take a shower and go to bed after. So finish your homework, and please try to go to bed early," my mother finished as she clearly hinted at my phone.

"Okay," I responded, while smiling awkwardly.

I couldn't even focus on anything else after the short conversation with my mom. I was too nervous and worried that she was going to question me before I could successfully sneaked away. As my mom told me, she took a shower. I knew I had to wait until she was fully asleep. Only then I could sneak out of the house and leave quietly. I waited 'till 11:10pm. I had to make sure it was safe for me to go. I grabbed the letter and headed to my mom's room. Her room was pitch dark. Thankfully, she was asleep. I carefully placed the letter on top of her makeup desk, and took a quick, last glance at my mom for what was going to be a long while from now. Then I headed to my sister's room. Just as I had expected, she wasn't asleep. She was sitting in her chair, working on her homework at her desk. I quietly knocked on her door. She quickly turned her chair to face me.

"Hey," I said. Lacie did not respond. She just sat in her chair and stared back at me with a sad expression. She clearly seemed upset.

"I have to go," I continued. Without saying anything, Lacie got off her chair and walked towards me, and hugged me. I hugged her back. After a few minutes of hugging in silence, Lacie pulled away, and then held both my hands.

"I'll miss you, and so will mom. You don't have to be worried about us. We'll be fine, and I'll text you if something happens," said Lacie, as she tried hard to fight back her tears. I gripped my sister's hands back tight.

"I know," I responded. Then I pulled my sister and hugged her again for the last time. After, the goodbyes, I began my way around the corner at the end of the hall to go down the stairs. However, to my surprise, I was stopped when I found a person standing on half way up the stairs. It was my mom. I immediately gasped in surprise. I thought she was sleeping in her room. She was supposed to be in her room, sleeping. I thought she was there when I dropped off my letter. I mad a mistake. I realized that I must've made a mistake, because her room was very dark and she clearly wasn't in her room now. She was in the middle of the stairs, probably listening to what Lacie and I were talking about. I was panicking. This was unexpected and unplanned.

"What do you mean you're leaving?" asked my mom, immediately. I did not respond. I was too shocked to say anything. She had a serious expression as she looked up at me from where she was standing on the stairs.

"What were you talking about with Lacie just now?" asked my mom, again.

"I... I have to go," I responded, and quickly ran down the stairs, past my mom. Trying to escape this situation, because I knew that she was going to make me explain and put herself at risk for danger. Not to my surprise, my mom followed me down the stairs. I headed for the door as quickly as I could. Not looking back at my mom or anything behind me.

"I know what you're hiding!" my mom yelled. I stopped immediately as I was reaching out for the doorknob. I turned around to face my mom who has completely caught my attention. I wasn't sure if she was just desperately trying to stop me or if she was telling the truth.

"No, mom. You really don't know," I answered, as I tried to assure that she had no idea of everything that's happened. "I'm sorry. I know I'm being unreasonable and a crappy daughter, but I have to go. I can't explain anything. Just try to understand what I had written in the letter that I left in your room," I responded.

I turned away from my mom and toward the door, once again. However, this time, my mom grabbed my wrist tightly.

"No. You don't understand. I know everything," said my mom. I looked at her with a confused expression. However, she looked so determined, and so sure. "Do you really think I never noticed? I'm your mother. I raised you since you were a baby. Do you think this is the first time you showed any signs of _difference_? This isn't the first time you showed your difference; your uniqueness," finished my mom, as she looked straight at my eyes. That was the moment I realized she knew. I wasn't sure what she knew. But my mom knew something.


	19. Chapter 19

"No. You don't understand. I know everything," said my mom. I looked at her with a confused expression. She, on the other hand, looked so determined; so sure. "Do you really think I never noticed? I'm your mother. I raised you since you were a baby. Trust me. I know," finished my mom as she looked straight into my eyes with so much assurance. That was the moment I realized that she knew. I wasn't sure what she knew, but she knew something.

 **Chapter 19**

 **I** stopped. Proving to my mom that I wasn't going to run away. My mom slowly let go of her tight grip on my arm; releasing me free. Her eyes and mine both stared as we weren't sure what to trust anymore. I said nothing as my mom silently directed me to the dining table that I was already familiar with. We both sat down. I hadn't sighted my sister, but I knew she was hiding somewhere listening to everything. My mom and I sat there quietly for a few minutes. She seemed undoubtedly troubled. I knew she needed a few minutes to gather her thoughts before speaking. I allowed her to take the moment as I was occupied with my own confused thoughts.

"I was afraid that this day would come," said my mom. Abling me to snapped out of my thoughts. My mom took a deep breath, "I know what you are. You don't have to hide it from me," she continued as she tried to reassure me. I, on the other hand, gave her the confused expression that I have been giving her for the past few minutes.

"You don't have to be so nervous. I knew of your ability since the beginning," said my mom as she reached her hand out to mine to calm me. I, immediately, pulled my hand away in shock of the news. My mom looked hurt, but tried her best not to show it. "You must have so many questions... I'm afraid I might not have all the answers though," she continued, "I will try my best to give you all the information you need".

"I... How... When..." I said quietly. I couldn't even speak up nor in full sentences.

"I know you're confused. I do. How about I start from the beginning?" my mom offered as she tried to look as positive as she could. "Everything began when I learned that I was pregnant with you. It was around 18 years ago. I was with your father back then. We had been happily married for 3 years and had careers that we both thrived in. He and I were both researchers at a top secret government-run-program called PROECT (Project Rebirth of Earth : Combination Ten). That was also where I first met your father. He was determined and committed to his work, yet loving to me. We were very similar in that way. Your father and I had been part of PROECT for a very long time. I was married to him before I was pregnant with you, but I had known him and been part of the PROECT for almost a decade. PROECT gathered the top most promising scientists and researchers from many different areas of specialty from all around the world. When I first learned that I was accepted to the organization, I was so excited and truly honored. PROECT had almost non-limited funding and resources. The program allowed scientists and researchers to conduct any experiment or researches as they wished anywhere at any time. However, PROECT itself was a top secret program, so no civilians knew of its existence except those within. Once anyone had spoken of it outside the facilities, they never came back. The purpose of PROECT was to _improve_ the planet Earth in any way possible. Which perfectly explained all the scientist and researchers who have gathered from many areas of specialty. I was only a research fellow when I first entered PROECT. Your father was in a higher position when I had first met him, and I could understand why. He had more experience and was more committed and devoted to PROECT than anyone I had ever known. For almost 8 years, I believed the purpose of PROECT was for pure good and improvement of Earth. I was wrong. As I continued to work for PROECT, I learned the hierarchy system that they had. For those who showed the most promise and had completely devoted and obsessed over the PROECT, they were given a higher position; which allowed them to participate in more secretive and biggest project within the PROECT. Only the individuals at the top of the system were allowed to join in the true purpose of PROECT. Naturally, the words spread; resulting in more and more researchers and scientists to be obsessed over the PROECT in order to be accepted and to be able to join the top. I've seen scientists and researchers commit themselves to more sub-projects and researches to get recognized. Like the majority, your father was one of them, but you're father was one of the only few to actually make it. I was happy for him; truly. Of course, I wanted to be a part of the top of the organization, like your father, but I eventually gave up. Because, eventually, I noticed what this competitive system within the PROECT did to people. It changed them, and I didn't want to lose myself by obsessing over the PROECT. I decided to be happy with what I had. Eventually, I married your father. The perks of being the wife of a top-recognized scientist was that I got to know a bit about the " _top secret_ " project within PROECT. However, it was never truly safe for anyone within PROECT to spill their secrets, so your father made sure I didn't know too much. However, I wasn't sure how I felt about PROECT after I had learned a bit more of her true nature and purpose. Your father explained to me that PROECT had actually existed for centuries. It had many different names, but since this was the tenth version of their _big top secret project_ , it was named PROECT. He explained that every few decades, the government returns the PROECT by gathering the top most promising scientist and researchers for their _top secret project._ Anyways, the purpose of this _top secret project_ within PROECT was to create a new species. A new kind of species that never existed on Earth in order to create change. Your father was a good man. He was loving and caring. However, once he had entered the _top secret project_ within the PROECT, he changed. I noticed that he began to drift farther away from me each passing day, and more committed to the PROECT. However, I still had hopes for him; that one day, he would come back to his old self. I was wrong, but I wasn't able to see the reality until it was too late. It wasn't until I was 7 months pregnant with you that I truly realized that he was no longer the man that I respected and fell in love with. That there was truly no hope left in him. I thought that your existence could bring him back, because when I told him that you were inside me, he was so excited. No wonder... Because the entire time that you were inside me, he was experimenting on you. He was using you as the subject for the _top secret project_ within PROECT. He wanted his greatest accomplishment to be as closely bound to him as possible; which was you," said my mom. She sighed in grief. I said nothing as I stared at her in complete shock. All I did was just sit there; still and speechless. 'How could she have hidden this from me all this time? How could she...' I wondered to myself.

"I was useless and powerless. I knew that I should've have noticed. Your father's odd behaviours, his repeated desires for me to take all tests and necessary procedures at the PROECT facilities, and his desire to keep me away from the outside environment. I just wanted to believe in your father. I eventually realized that I was absolutely powerless at PROECT. So I decided to run away... But I was too late," my mom stopped and took a deep breath. "Soon after I realized what your father was, I gave birth to you. When I first laid eyes on you, I could see what your father had done and what you were. I knew exactly what your father was, but after giving birth to you, I felt even more weak and powerless. I wasn't confident nor strong enough to escape with you from the PROECT and your father's reach. So I stayed at PROECT for another year and half. Yes, I stayed with your father. I was blinded and foolish. Until the end, I wanted to have hope for him. I knew that I shouldn't and I tried not to, but deep inside, I still had a tiny bit of hope left for him. However, after a year and half since your birth, I learned that I was pregnant with Lacie. It was then I finally came to my senses. I knew that I had to run now or else not only you, but your sister was also going to be completely under the control of PROECT. So I secretly reached out to my close friend for help. She was also a part of the _top secret project_ , but she had no clue that your father was experimenting on you and me. When I reached out to her, she was confused and conflicted. She had a choice to make; to either help me and betray PROECT or to leave me and stay with PROECT. I had known her since childhood. She was like family, so I wasn't surprised to hear that she wanted to help me. I'm forever grateful to her. During my preparation to escape your father, my dear friend informed me of another horrifying information: that there were 5 others who were being tested by the PROECT, just like you. However, unlike you, the other 5 were being grown within the lab. She informed me that some of them were being grown from donated eggs within the lab, some were premature born babies sold to the PROECT by individuals who sold them for money, and one was being tested while in her mother's womb; you. She didn't know which one was under which condition of birth, but she wanted to help them get out too. So before we escaped, my friend had gathered a few individuals to take them away and hide them. However, the day I ran away was also the last day I saw my friend and your father. The day I escaped with the 5 other infants like you, the whole main facility of PROECT burned to the ground. Ever since then, I believed your father was gone, along with my friend, and along with PROECT. However, ever since these recent events, I realized that they've been looking for you and the others this whole time. It made me realize that one burnt facility with death of hundreds wasn't going to stop the PROECT. I knew keeping all of you close would eventually attract attention, but it was also the only way to keep you all safe. I don't know much of the people who raised the other five; whether they were raised by their biological parents or adoptive parents. My friend had set that up. I didn't get much information on it, so I'm afraid I can't give you more answers on that," paused my mom. I was confused, angry, and frustrated at the same time. Everything was happening so quickly. I was confused as to how she could've hidden this from me for so long, and angry as to how she could've stayed with my father for so long even after my birth. I continued to stare at her with a confused and upset expression on my face.

"I know that you think I was a useless and unreasonable mother to have stayed with your father for so long, even after your birth. I know that I wasn't a good mother who made the right decisions as a mom. However, I was just trying to get your father back. I just wanted to hope. I now know that I'll forever regret not leaving your father earlier... I'm so sorry," finished my mom. I could see tears trickling down her face. I didn't know what to say. All I wanted to do was run away and get some fresh air. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think properly.

"I... I have to go," I whispered quietly.

"Sherra wait. Please... Say something," said my mom as she tried to stop me.

"I have to go. I can't stay," I repeated, a bit louder this time. I got on my foot; pushing my chair backwards. I did not make eye contact with my mom. I couldn't. I grabbed my bag that was resting against the wall. I began to pace towards the front door. I grabbed the door knob once more, and pulled the front door open. I could hear my mom yell "Sherra! Please wait!" as I stepped through the front door. As I exited the house, I spread my wings open and flew up high without looking back nor hesitation.

I couldn't hear anyone anymore. The night was dark and quiet. I took a deep breath. My head was echoing with my mom's words. Nothing in my life was as it seemed. I wasn't sure what I was feeling anymore. All I wanted to do was pause. I tried to clear my head from all my thoughts. I checked my watch; it was 11:56pm. I had to get myself together. I had to get going to meet with the others. I looked down and scanned for a corner that I could land safely without being noticed. Once I had landed, I began walking to the spot where I promised the others to meet. I could see Haley, Jae, and Elijah there already. It was dark, but I could tell Haley had cried. Soon, we were joined by Maya and Luke. For a moment, we stood there and exchanged looks that we could not describe. I think a part of us were acknowledging the fact that we were all we had from now on. We weren't sure what was coming ahead of us. We weren't sure if we were ready for what was going to come, but we had to rely on each other. It was us alone now.

"Let's go," I said as we left for a regrettable path.


End file.
